Halo: Elemental Balance
by Asgardian Dovahkiin
Summary: Five long years have passed. Join the Avatar Gang in what will most likely be their final mission as they face their mightiest opponent yet! Rated T for Violence. [Sequel to Elements of Change, and direct continuation of All Hail]
1. Brave New World

A gate opened, an armored giant walked in. The armor of the goliath, MJOLNIR NOBLE, shone against the lights of the small office. It was colored steel and sage…his visor golden and presence deep. It approached the figure of a woman who looked at a map, the map of Requiem. There were marker marks all over the Earth Kingdom, over its important cities. "The teams are ready." The supersoldier said.

"Those barbarians will know pain." The woman responded, "Come."

The supersoldier stood by her side looking at the map, analyzing it. "Tell me, do you still believe in our cause?" She asked the supersoldier.

"I'm a soldier, ma'am. Order is one of the most important things we must uphold, even if those in power don't agree with the methods." The supersoldier replied.

"Hm." She began to think. "Do you still believe in me?"

The supersoldier took off his helmet, "I've seen your work, experienced battle with you…I've come to know you on a level that has allowed me made appreciate you and who you are. Like I told you on the day that I removed myself from the UNSC, I will stay by your side."

The woman smiled and turned to face the supersoldier, placing her hand on his face, green eyes met. "You're the best thing that has ever happened to me, Donar." She said.

"And you are mine, Kuvira."

* * *

 **HALO: ELEMENTAL BALANCE**

* * *

 _5 Years After the Battle of Installation 03_

 **Planet Kamchatka**

 **Caspar System**

 **Early Morning**

 **October 20** **th** **[Earth Calendar]**

The sound of the pelican's holographic system came online, its blue light shining on four SPARTANs sitting on either side of the pelican's troop hangar. "Fireteam Osiris. Over the last 72 hours, five colonies have experienced identical events. Massive destruction, Forerunner in origin." Captain Thomas Lasky informed.

The image of Dr. Catherine Halsey came up, "It's been almost five years since our last contact with Dr. Halsey when she was captured by enemy forces in Requiem. She has managed to contact us about two days ago. She claims to have relevant information on these attacks."

"As you were briefed aboard the Infinity, she is currently being held on the surface of Kamchatka. The original plan was for scorched earth, but that has changed. The possible info she has on these attacks may be too valuable to lose." Commander Sarah Palmer appeared next to Lasky, "Your mission is to infiltrate behind enemy lines, secure the doctor, and bring her back to the Infinity."

"But this is the part where things get tricky." Lasky added.

"Halsey is being guarded by a small squadron of highly trained Zealot Elites, and Jul 'Mdama himself." Palmer informed them. "You know what to do."

"Acknowledged." Osiris-One, Spartan Korra, leader of Fireteam Osiris said.

"Godspeed, Osiris. Infinity out." Lasky gave them his good luck and ceased communications. Korra stood up from her seat soon followed by her teammates, she had her helmet off.

"Is the tracking gear online?" Korra asked.

"Yeah, got it." Vale replied, "We're jumping into a warzone down there."

"We've been in worse." Tanaka said smirking. "But for the sake of the mission, anyone want to say some words before we make the jump?" She grabbed her helmet from an overhead compartment.

"I figure if God can hear how scared I am, so can anyone else." Buck stated. "Hey Korra, do your people have any fancy quotes you can share with us?"

"Sometimes life is like this tunnel. You can't always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you keep moving, you will come to a better place." Korra smiled while putting her helmet on, "So how about we shoot our way into the light?"

The others smiled, Vale jumped out of pelican soon followed by Tanaka. Buck approached Korra, "Don't trip on your way down, kid." He said.

"I won't." Korra replied, Buck smirked and placed his helmet on. He jumped. Korra looked at her armored hands, she could still feel it. The cuts. She sighed and jumped off as well.

The team made freefall deep into enemy territory, Covenant dropships and Banshees swarmed the sky fighting Promethean Phaetons. "Contact." Buck said as the team made landfall onto the snowy battlefield. Immediately after their boots made contact with the ground they ran at top speeds through both Covenant and Promethean forces. They fired their weapons at both forces, picking them off as they ran. Vale noticed a Phantom hovering close to the ground dropping Zealots into the battle. She jumped into it, and pushed one of the Elites off as the dropship began to ascend. The Grunts inside screamed in fear in the sight of the Spartan. Vale grabbed them and broke their necks. Another Elite came out of the Phantom's cockpit with an energy sword on hand, Vale gracefully evaded all the slashes and kicked the Elite back into the cockpit with a plasma grenade stuck to his chest. The Elite yelled in anger as the grenade exploded, Vale jumped off the ship as its pilot seat exploded and began to fall into the ground battle below.

BOOM!

Vale rejoined the rest of her squad as they continued to sprint pass all hostiles, killing them when they got close enough. But then, the entire ground shook…they turned to see one of the CRS-battlecruisers crashed into the mountainside they stood on. A massive avalanche of snow and battlecruiser debris began to roll down towards them at high speeds.

"Run!" Korra barked.

Osiris sprinted down the mountainside as fast as they could, this time tackling any hostiles down their way. The avalanche crushed all Covenant and Promethean forces on its way, Osiris was next. There was an end to the mountain, Osiris had only one thing to do left. One last jump. They jumped into the crevice and hugged the rock wall. In front of them were several Elites and Jackals waiting for them. They aimed their plasma weapons at the team but before they could fire, a rain of snow and starship parts crushed them into oblivion with a loud bang.

Calm followed. Osiris reloaded their weapons. "Osiris Actual, this is Osiris-One, do you copy?" Korra spoke through the radio.

"Osiris Actual here." Thorne replied from the other side, "Still in one piece, Commander?"

Regulations had been strict on Korra ever since the last mission, but her bravery and leadership had earned her a promotion. In the eyes of the Office of Naval Intelligence she was no mere agent or operative, she was their future. An investment that could be the fruit of many great things. The rank of commander was more ceremonial than an actual rank since Spartans didn't have a typical ranking structure within the UNSC and ONI, but the top spooks wanted her to have authority over most Spartans and UNSC personnel while on missions. Giving her an understandable rank was the obvious choice.

"It was a close shave, Thorne. What do you see?" Korra asked their mission control operative and recon scout.

"Heavy fighting ahead of your position. The Covenant are pushing with several troops…expect heavy armor nearby." Thorne informed them. "I'll scout ahead of the main battle, see if any Knight is nearby."

"Roger that, Osiris out." Korra responded. "All right guys, we're moving out."

* * *

 **Air Temple Island, Republic City, United Republic**

 **Requiem**

 **Epoloch System**

 **October 21** **st** **[Earth Calendar]**

Master Tenzin, the overhead and main trainer of the newly born Air Nation walked into his living room. It had been a heavy past week for the old master, new recruits coming in from all over the world…and apparently other planets. Six new benders from Earth itself, it seemed that the spiritual awakening wasn't limited only to this world. But it made the old master's heart warm to see that his father's dream wasn't only alive and well but also reaching a scope that he wouldn't have ever imagined.

In the living room were his family members, Pema feeding Rohan who had grown into a healthy boy, Ikki who was becoming the formidable airbender that her father knew she would become, Jinora who had exceeded all expectations and finally…Meelo. He was a promising airbender but he was energetic to say the least. Among them were Kya, an experienced and powerful waterbender, and Bumi, a retired United Forces naval officer. Both are Tenzin's siblings. The other accompanying them were Asami Sato, the owner of Future Industries, and one of the Avatar's closest friends. Unfortunately, Mako and Bolin hadn't made it back. Bolin was out in the Earth Kingdom, aiding with the reunification of the country and Mako was at Earth from what they had heard of him.

The morning before, the Southern Water Tribe had sent word that Chieftain Tonraq, father of Avatar Korra, was sailing to the United Republic. Tenzin and the others were hopeful that Korra was most likely coming along with her father…they hadn't seen Korra in so long. Ever since her battle with the Ur-Didact. The Halo still orbited above Requiem, its presence a dark reminder of the dangers that the universe held. The ring wasn't operational, many of its defense system relegated to a small number of Sentinels and its final weapon shut down. Nevertheless, everyone was happy in the thought of seeing their friend and Avatar return.

"How's advance training, Jinora? Earning your tattoos and all." Kya, Jinora's aunt, asked.

"Pretty tough, dad made me glide in the sky for ten minutes with a spoon full of water." Jinora said, "Worst part is that I had to hold the spoon with my teeth."

"That sounds…like overkill." Kya replied, "Tenzin does like to push hard."

"That's an understatement." The two laughed, Jinora then thought about all the adventures that she had with Korra and the others. "I can't wait to see Korra again. Last time I saw her, she was unconscious…full of bruises…bleeding…"

"I'm pretty sure that the boys upstairs patched her up good." Kya assured her young niece. "I'm not too fond of their militaristic themes but they do have superb hospitals."

"You've been to one, aunt Kya?"

"More than one. I've helped them treat soldiers when they first arrived here. They were understaffed back then, but their equipment made my water healing look like a tortoise in comparison. Lots of nice and genuine doctors and nurses there." Kya answered, "Takes a lot to see the good in these tin soldiers, heh."

The door knocked, Bumi who was close to it opened it. On the other side stood a uniformed man, dressed in the standard Marine Dress Uniform, but instead of the UNSC eagle on the belt buckle, there was a flaming skull engraved on it. "Mako?" Bumi asked.

"I hope that I'm not too late." Mako replied taking off his hat showing his neatly combed black hair, cut to brass regulations.

The kids rushed to hug Mako, who they hadn't seen in quite a while. Off to missions away constantly. Tenzin approached the trooper, "Good to see you, Mako." He shook the young man's hand.

"Good to see you all again." Mako replied, entering the living room, and taking a seat. "Feels good to get back home and just take a long breather."

Asami sat next to him, "Looking sharp space boy." She teased.

"You aren't looking bad yourself, Asami." Mako replied, "How are you?"

"Well stocks and tech are going up. Airplanes, more efficient satomobiles, bigger buildings…its good."

"I didn't ask how your company was, Asami, I asked how you were."

"Well…to be honest, it's been lonely with you guys away. You in the space military, Bolin out there making a name for himself and Korra…well…out of action. I've written mail to her, letting her know that we were all okay and doing well. But I hadn't gotten any replies for the past five years, even after the UNSC representative told me she was in good health." Asami replied, "I'm not sure what to think."

"I haven't had time to do much. Things out there, they're stuff that I wouldn't even had imagine in seeing. Beautiful planets…and horrible nightmares. I just wanted to make it here today to see you guys again before shipping off to the next assignment." Mako said, "Falling from the sky tends to take a toll off you."

"I've been meaning to ask, how are the new upgrades to the insertion pods?" Asami asked.

"Oh man you wouldn't believe it, the impacts don't shake my entire skeleton anymore…wait, that was you? You designed the updates?"

"Well I can't get all the credit, it was Captain Lasky who basically opened the door for Future Industries to expand into the off-world military market." Asami said, "I'm glad that none of you troopers exploded before making landfall."

Mako smirked, Asami was the same brilliant beautiful woman he remembered, he hoped that his brother and Korra hadn't changed much as well. Meelo was looking out the window, staying vigilant for any incoming ships. "Hey! Its Korra!" Meelo pointed at the Southern Water Tribe Navy ship approaching the island.

"Let's go meet them!" Tenzin said followed by all the others.

The ship docked, Tenzin and the others walked towards it, the ship's walking platform extended into the port. Out of it walked out Tonraq himself with two royal guards, he was different, but not worse for wear. "Tonraq, it is good to see you again." Tenzin welcomed the Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe.

"I am grateful to see you again, old friend." Tonraq replied. But something was missing, and Mako noticed. Walking up towards them, Mako wanted to ask the head of state a very important question.

"Chief Tonraq, where's Korra?" Mako asked bluntly. He was asking the question that everyone had in their heads at the moment.

"Korra? Well…she hasn't been with us for five years." Tonraq revealed.

"What?" The sudden revelation surprised Tenzin and the others.

"The UNSC hasn't said much, but they told me that she would be back soon. That was two years ago." Tonraq said, "I've pushed for more information, but their leaders insist that they are also in the dark for the most part."

"That's insane, they must know something!" Asami responded.

"I'm sorry, but that's all I know. I know my daughter well, and I believe that she is in healthy conditions and doing her darn best out there." Tonraq said, "Actually, I came to see the preparations for Kuvira's ceremony. She is being congratulated for her efforts in unifying most of the splintered Earth Kingdom territories."

"I see, I expect the Fire Lady and Lord Zuko to arrive as well." Tenzin said. But Mako and Asami's minds were elsewhere.

"This doesn't make any sense…" Mako said to Asami as they walked aside from the others. "There has to be something about this, records, reports…anything about Korra."

"Maybe it's like Tonraq said, the UNSC is as confused as we are." Asami said, "It's something dark and I know it."

"I have to make some calls." Mako stated, "Hey you could come with me if you aren't too busy, it could be like old times."

"Hmm…I could always leave my board in charge for the time being. Alright Mr. Hell Feet, I'm coming with. I just Korra is okay…five years is a long time."

"Yeah…tell me about it."

* * *

 **Planet Terra Nova**

 **Deep Space**

 **ONI Base "Overlord"**

 _Five Years Ago…_

"Heart rate stable."

"Are you sure that we can salvage anything?"

"Of course. She isn't dead."

"Well then, prepare for the augmentation procedures. She will be only useful as a post-human."

"Beginning process, we better start with the lower body and remove any invading substances."

"Do it."

"At once, Admiral."


	2. A Star To Steer By

**Planet Kamchatka**

 **Caspar System**

 **Morning**

 **October 20** **th** **[Earth Calendar]**

Osiris fought through an intense group of Promethean Crawlers, each one jumping around the surrounding icy walls and avoiding the Spartans' bullets. The hardlight rounds of the Crawlers' Boltshots and Suppressors were like heat-seeking mini-missiles arching over cover and walls to hit their intended target. Odd. These Prometheans had been upgraded. Somehow.

"You know what's funny?" Buck asked as he peeked over his rocky cover to fire his assault rifle at an incoming Crawler, blowing it up to pieces. "I never, ever, expected to see these things on other planets."

"There has to be something important on this planet." Korra replied shooting her battle rifle at a larger Crawler, killing it. "That's the last of them." The others came out of cover.

"There's a larger structure on the other side of the battlefield, but going guns blazing would be a bad move since there are tons of Prometheans there." Tanaka said, "No way of sneaking our way in either, heavily fortified by Covenant plasma turrets and one Zealot."

"Not much to think about then, eh?" Korra reloaded her rifle, "C'mon."

* * *

 _5 Years Ago…_

 **Planet Terra Nova**

 **Unknown System**

 **ONI Base "Overlord"**

A handful of doctors and two well-dressed individuals rushed through the grey halls of the facility, one of the doctors pumping air into the patient lying on the hospital bed. "Jesus, who thought it was a good idea to freeze a dying girl?!" One of the doctors yelled.

"Last minute transfer, doc." One of the two well-dressed men replied, "Just do all you can."

The doctors rushed into the operating room along with the patient.

 _...seven hours later..._

The lights of recovering room blinded her eyes as she tried to wake up, she felt dizzy and weak. She couldn't feel her legs, but the rest of her body felt numb. As if she had been sleeping on top of both her arms…for a long time. The girl tried to sit up but felt restraints on both her arms. She grunted as she tried to break free.

"Please, try to relax." A voice came out of the intercom in front of her bed. She looked around, trying to get a feeling of her surroundings. There were several machines connected to her, and a tube placed into her right arm. The room was mostly empty, with a single black chair next to her bed.

"W-Where am I?" She asked. "What happened?"

"You're safe." The voice responded. "You were injured, severely, in a fight."

"What's…ugh…I can barely remember…" The girl said feeling her head spinning in circles.

"You are Korra, the Avatar." The voice stated, "And we saved you."

The girl looked at the intercom, it was a speaker installed into the metal wall with a single red eye on it. A camera. But then, Korra shifted her gaze upon the far end of her bed. "My legs!" She screamed.

There was nothing there… "What happened to my legs?!" Korra yelled.

"We had to amputate both of your legs. The bones had been completely shattered beyond repair and your muscles had been sliced apart by said broken bones. Luckily, we were able to fix the remainder of your legs from the knees-up." The voice answered.

Korra's shock didn't fade, even after the cold voice's explanation, her eyes became watery, filling with tears. But the sadness quickly turned into anger, she pulled the medical tube out of her arm and disconnected the other machines from her. Korra jumped off her bed and fell onto the cold metal floor, she crawled towards the door.

"Korra, please, stop." The voice said.

But Korra ignored it, she weakly crawled towards the exit, she was so close…and it opened. But instead of freedom she found an armored man standing on the other side. "Sedate her, now." The voice ordered.

The armored guard knelt in front of the terrified Korra, "You're a feisty one." He said, he stood back up and kicked Korra hard enough to knock her out.

…

…

…

Korra began to regain her senses, drugs had been pumped into her, making her vision blurry a bit. She groaned as she sat back up, still on the white hospital bed. No cables or computers connected to her, only the I.V unit was connected to her right arm's vein and a single finger scanner on her right index finger to monitor heart rate and pulse. Korra wasn't feeling too well, but at least the intense shock was for the most part gone.

She looked down to see her missing legs again, but to her surprise…there they were, under the bedsheets. With great joy Korra smiled and flipped the bed sheets over to finally look at her legs and see that it had been a nightmare.

But to her dismay, instead of seeing her tan skin she was met with a dull metallic color. Her legs were cybernetic in nature, prosthetics. The door to her room opened, revealing the same guard that had knocked her out step in. He was cladded in full body armor, Marine BDU, holding a customized assault rifle with a smart scope and stabilizers and a strange paint job, looked like an Earth animal, an eagle.

He smirked and placed a cigar in his mouth, but the doctor who walked after him took it off his mouth. She threw to the side, he was kind of mad at first but then he shook it off. The doctor looked to be around her mid-30s, had brown hair and fair skin. She wore glasses and a white lab coat over blue hospital attire. She checked Korra's hear rate and pulse, it seemed to be normal. She then approached Korra who was sitting still.

"I see that you saw your new legs." The doctor said, "Took an entire staff of surgeons and three bio-engineers and several hours to make them work. Hardest part was to make your body accept them as part of your organism."

Korra moved one of the metallic toes at the end of her cybernetic left leg, it moved as if it were her own organic toe. "Huh…" Korra was intrigued by this, but still… "What about…"

"We found several foreign materials clogged in several areas of your body." The doctor said as she was preparing something in the desk next to Korra's bed. "Mercury, toxins, shrapnel most like from the fracture bones and from the fight you had, and infected body tissues. We were able to remove most of them and clean your system with mid-difficulty."

Korra was thankful to the people who saved her but the questioned lingered in the back of her head, she thought that she might as well ask. "Thanks, but…why go through all the trouble?" She asked.

The doctor turned and placed the syringe needle into Korra's I.V. unit. "Aside from it being our task to help people with injuries and sickness, we were told that you were very special."

The guard stepped in smiling, "The boss lady wants you for something big, kiddo. Wants you on top shape for what's going to occur in the following days." He stated.

"Days? How long have I been out?" Korra asked.

"Two months." The doctor replied.

* * *

 _One Week Later_

…/Doctor's Report: Patient ready for following procedure. She has been transferred towards the area of commencement. Regular infusions of preparatory serums successful…/

Korra walked into a bright room, she was being accompanied by two soldiers dressed in black armor, but they weren't ODSTs. The room was massive with several scientists and numerous of other candidates standing in front of metal beds which odd devices overlooked. The scientists were taking the candidates' clothes off leaving them with the bare essentials, and checking their vitals.

"What…what's going on?" Korra asked. She had been taken from her recovery room here by force, she didn't have a clue of what was about to happen. The loud steps of a titanic being approached her, she turned to her left to witness a massive dark armored supersoldier.

Agent Ajax, the rabid dog of the Office of Naval Intelligence. He wore a different type of MJOLNIR armor… the robust operative stood in front of Korra, towering over her. His shadow engulfed her smaller and frailer frame, and her silently scared guards. "You. Number 234. Walk to your post." He said in a deep and monotone voice.

"W-What…?"

The Spartan bent over so that his red visor met Korra's face, "I gave you an order. Follow it."

Not wanting to be split in half, Korra did as he said. She was confused, scared, and powerless. Korra stood in front of the metal bed like the other candidates were, waiting as scientists in hazard suits did their thing around her. Agent Ajax walked by them, his footsteps making loud bangs on the metal floor. He stopped at the far end of the room, entering another room. That's when she noticed one-sided windows overlooking at the room she was in.

Ajax approached a lone figure looking at the candidates being prepped for the procedure. The Spartan stood next to her, she was tall, broad, and emanated an aura of power. "Admiral." Ajax spoke.

"Does she know?" She asked.

"Not yet." He responded. "234 will react negatively to the procedure."

"The augmentation process has advance greatly, it is even more efficient than the augmentation process that was used to create the first batch of SPARTAN-IVs." The Admiral replied, "She will live. And if she revolts, I can always convince her of otherwise."

The Guard and the Doctor who had attended for Korra since her surgery approached the two figures, the doctor held a small datapad. "Ma'am, I have the list of the things that the process will do." The Doctor said giving the Admiral the datapad.

"Y'all said that the girl had untold amounts of hidden power, but will making her a Spartan do anything but make her another walking concrete pillar? No offense." The Guard said, Ajax ignored his comment.

"We've made plans, Sergeant, on how her procedure will actually entail to. Her augmentation will have a lot more than the common S-IV modifications. The other candidates in there exists only to be practice dummies, this process is new and untested for the most part." The Admiral said, "We've discovered a great many things since the Forward Unto Dawn crashed into Requiem. There are things in this galaxy, no, universe that even the most trained and skilled Spartan can't ever hope to face."

"So what, you want to create a super super soldier?" The Sergeant seemed to be more liberal in the way he spoke to an officer, but the Admiral didn't mind. In fact, she was quite easy going when it came to unofficial, more personal kind of meetings.

"In a sense." The Admiral responded. "We will need to push through human limit, to aspire to the old gods of legend. Where Halsey saw Achilles and Leonidas, I see Ares and Tyr. Where she saw a precise scalpel, I see a high-frequency laser that slices open the flesh to retrieve the cancerous growth. If the universe is willing to throw godlike beings at us, we might as well do the same towards it. And this girl holds powers that a fraction of her people has, but to a much, much, much lesser degree, and through this we can learn on how to produce more of her."

"Jeez, ma'am, went on to a bit of a monologue." The Sergeant said as he lighted his cigar. "Got a name to this pet project of yours?"

"Since I see this as an understandably more efficient and advance procedure than the S-IV program, I have decided to call it ORION-V." The Admiral answered. "Full circle. Don't you agree?"

"I find it poetic." The Doctor said.

"Well, the fours were bad enough. I don't want to lose my job to this new wave of cyborgs…again no offense, Ajax." The Sergeant stated.

"Grrr…." Ajax resisted the urge to cave his face in.

The Augmentation Process began.

* * *

 **Planet Kamchatka**

 **Caspar System**

 **Morning**

 **October 20** **th** **[Earth Calendar]**

Osiris rushed through enemy lines, the battle getting the more intense as they made their way towards the far structure. The air battle seemed to be coming to the Promethean's favor as well, but then the Covenant Kraken appeared from the sky. It completely brushed the Promethean air forces with ease with its heavy plasma cannons and battery defenses. Osiris knew that they were no match for that behemoth, so instead they continued with their mission. Ahead, the Zealot sunk his energy sword into the body of a downed Promethean Knight, killing it. The Zealot roared with a victorious roar. The surviving Covenant units around him, Grunts, and Elites, fought even more intensely at the sight of their leader's victory. The Prometheans here had been driven away by both the Covenant and Osiris. But the Spartans had to deal with the Zealot and his soldiers now.

Buck unleaded his assault rifle at the unshielded Grunts, taking them down. Tanaka and Vale used their strength and finesse respectively to fight off the Elites. Korra ran towards the Zealot who still wielded his energy sword. "Demon, you challenge me to battle?" The Zealot asked.

"I'm in kind of a rush, but if it's a fight that you want…" Korra's bending wasn't at its one hundred percent, but she could influence around her to a degree still. The snow around them was made of frozen water, Korra's turf. She placed her battle rifle on her back. Korra could feel the water molecules surrounding all of them, she didn't really need to fight this Zealot with her weakened bending, but the science team said that she was now able to bend again, so why the hell not?

The Zealot ran to attack the unarmed Korra, but then he felt his legs give up. Just stop midway towards his target. He looked down to see that half of his body was frozen in ice. "What?!" The Zealot yelled. He turned back to look at his foe again, but Korra was gone. "Where…"

"Should've been more watchful." Korra whispered to the Elite's earhole before she dipped her titanium combat knife into the alien's exposed neck, slicing it open. The energy sword depowered and fell into the snow. Blood flowed down the Zealot's armor and into the ice that enveloped him.

"That was pretty brutal." Buck said as the rest of Osiris re-grouped with their leader. "And unnecessary."

"As long as it gets the job done, can you really complain?" Korra said as she turned her back to her teammates as she cleaned the purple blood off her knife with snow. "Come on, let's get Halsey. This place is dead already."

The metal gate of the structure opened allowing them inside, Buck was a bit uneasy with Korra's attitude. Something wasn't right. Still he followed, he would have some words with Korra once this mission was over.

* * *

 _Five Years Ago_

 **Planet Terra Nova**

 **Unknown System**

 **ONI Base "Overlord"**

Several weeks had passed, Korra was feeling an amount of pain that surged through her extremities. Once again bound to whole lot of tubes and monitors, Korra noticed that her hair had been cut short, her whole body was wrapped in bandages and she couldn't move. She couldn't speak either…too weak.

A woman stood in front of her, her face was hidden by the shadow that the lights created. "It is good that we meet face to face, Korra." She said, "You may not feel it now, but you have become something greater than merely a simple girl. You have become the protector of not only your home world, but of Earth and all her colonies."

"You'll lead us into greatness."

* * *

…

Korra walked through a dark hall, they had told her that it was waiting for her there. She had time to adjust to her new augmentations. She remembered the talk she had with "her". At first Korra screamed, blamed, and spew hatred onto the woman who was responsible for not only her survival but also her modifications.

* * *

"I know that you are mad…" The woman said.

"Mad? I am absolutely furious!" Korra punched a hole in the concrete wall out of anger, the strike had dented the metal on the other side of the concrete. But Korra's hand was fine, she hadn't notice the damage of her punch. But the woman did. "How could you…you do this to me?!"

"We saved you." The woman replied, "And we have given you the means to protect all of humanity." She stood up and walked towards the window in her tiny office. "We know what hides out there, things even beyond the Didact's reach."

"What are you talking about?!" Korra was still full of wrath.

"Survival. You are the Avatar, representative of all the five nations of your home world, but why limit yourself to a singular planet? We need your help. Now more than ever." The woman answered.

Korra sighed. She knew this. The Tree of Time…the War Sphinx. It all pointed to her taking Forthencho's mantle. But it was happening all the sudden… "I wasn't given a choice to be the Avatar, but I placed all my will into it. I never asked to be this…this." Korra said looking at her augmentation scars and artificial legs. "Just…then let's do this."

The woman smiled. She walked towards Korra, the woman was still two heads taller than the Avatar. She handed Korra a pair of dog tags with her name engraved on them, "Welcome to the fold, Korra. And allow me to reintroduce myself formally this time, I am Admiral Serin Osman and this is…ONI."

* * *

That was one year ago, Korra had been training extensively since then. Advance physical training, weapon training, advanced education, specialist courses, and the like. She was taught about Leonidas and the 300 Spartans in the Battle of Thermopylae, of the ferocity, power, tactical, and mythical qualities of the Spartans of old. The tactics of Erwin Rommel and George S. Patton. She read the Art of War. Learn history and mathematics. Scenarios that required critical thinking, while under fire. Live ammunition. Near death. Survival, being dropped alone in a vast jungle for a week.

Needless to say, this training regimen had hardened her. A lot.

Korra entered a small room, walking through the automatic doors. There it was. Standing before her. On the other side of the glass.

The MJOLNIR Aegis Mk. IV. Made specifically for her. Blue highlights ran across the armor's dark titanium shell. The helmet had several small markings, Water Tribe. And the visor was bright cerulean blue. It was perfect.

Korra's reflection over the glass show her toughened new self. She was now a Spartan.

Many thought that Korra was dead, that she died in her fight against the Didact and that the Avatar Cycle had been broken. But they were wrong.

Spartans never die…


	3. Fireteam Osiris

**Planet Kamchatka**

 **Caspar System**

 **Late Morning**

 **October 20** **th** **[Earth Calendar]**

Fireteam Osiris walked into the structure, it was quiet, they took their time to count their ammo reserves. Buck scanned the room, "No tangos in sight." He informed, Korra nodded and walked towards the opposing gate.

"Alright I can get a reading on Dr. Halsey's distress signal, she's close." Korra told the team, "Try not to touch anything, might wake up some sleeping beauties."

The gate opened allowing Osiris entrance, it was a big room, with pods all around them. The Forerunners would erect structures like this one to exonerate their dead, those who fell in battle fighting the Flood. "A crypt." Vale said, "This is a Forerunner crypt, the pods are where the Forerunner dead have been put to rest."

Korra was impressed, the Forerunners were quite respectful of their passed, in any case she walked towards the exit. Outside awaited another battle, the Covenant Kraken was still under siege and they needed it to distract the Promethean forces. She placed her hand over the hand panel to activate the gate, but then the crypt began to shake. "You've got to be kidding me."

Promethean Soldiers began to materialize all over the room, surrounding Osiris. "So yeah what was that about not touching anything?" Buck said as the team made a circle in the middle of the room.

"Engage!" Korra ordered. Assault Rifle and Battle Rifle fire lit the room, the full metal jacket bullets hitting ancient Forerunner armor plating, some of the bullets bounced off the Soldiers' thick metal skin, but some passed through the unprotected areas, the glowing hardlight soft spots. Still the Soldiers attacked relentlessly with their Suppressors, the tracking hardlight bullets hit the Spartans' energy shielding, draining it considerably. "Break! Don't let them get the upper hand!"

Buck placed his Assault Rifle on his back to switch it for an M90 Shotgun which fired Soellkraft 8-gauge magnum cartridges. They were powerful enough to penetrate a spaceship's outer hull with ease. The former ODST turned Spartan sprinted into the pack of Soldiers, tackling them out of the way, he turned around and fired his shotgun. The blast took down three Soldiers with utmost ferocity, "Take that you bunch of automatons!"

Vale activated the Artemis Tracking System, a subsystem software installed in the more common VISR to allow operatives in the Spartan Branch and ONI Special Agents to locate VIPs, mark objectives and create battleplans on the spot. Vale devised a plan on what it would take a normal human to blink, there was an overhanging platform over them that contained a control panel, she would jump on it to avoid Suppressor fire and have the high ground over the Soldiers and pick them off with her Magnum.

Tanaka, like Buck, was more hands on with her approach in dealing with soulless machines like these. Soldiers were smart, their AI while limited, could outmaneuver your standard Marine squadron in a matter of seconds, so in the feeling of getting her armor toasted she took cover behind a protruding piece of wall. Korra noticed what she was planning to do and jumped out of the way as two plasma grenades were thrown into the direction of the Soldiers that were already firing at Vale who made it over the overhanging platform. The grenades stuck onto the pack of soldiers, exploding in a blue bright light of superheated gas turning them into molten metal.

Buck took care of the rest, dispatching them with some shotgun shots. The last Soldier fell on the floor dead, "That was quite the workout." Buck stated inserting more cartridges into the shotgun.

"We're not done yet." Tanaka replied, and in cue a Promethean Knight Lancer materialized in front of them. "Looks like they got upgraded."

"And meaner!" Vale said firing her SMG into the Knight. It roared in anger taking out its Energy Blade and charged into the Spartans that were on the ground. It teleported in and out of reality as it did, not letting the Spartans get a clear shot on it. It hit Korra hard, not only breaking through her energy shielding but also pushing her 3 meters back into the floor. Buck fired his shotgun, the pellets penetrating the Knight's armor but not stopping it, it just got madder. It slapped Buck away with its rifle hand, knocking off his helmet. Tanaka jumped on the Knight's back, digging her Battle Rifle's barrel deep into its unarmored sections and firing. The Knight couldn't shake her off, Tanaka held onto it as much as she could while emptying her weapon in it. Vale jumped down from above and aided Tanaka to keep the creature in one place. The Knight roared in anger. Korra got back up, she saw her teammates on the Knight's back keeping it occupied, she got an idea. She ran towards the Knight, slid down to avoid its Energy Blade, and stood back up in the blink of an eye, she quickly turned and ripped the Knight's blade hand off.

The Promethean Knight screamed in pain, Tanaka and Vale were finally knocked off it. Korra took the opportunity to stab the goliath with its own weapon, burying it deep in its stomach section. The Knight stumbled backwards, it looked at the team and began to fire its Lightrifle randomly hoping to get someone with it. Buck pushed Korra into the floor as the Knight emptied its Lightrifle and finally fell into the ground and dematerialized into a cloud of digital information. Buck helped Korra get back up, "Thanks. You okay?" Korra asked him.

"Just a lovetap." He touched a small bruise on the side of his left cheekbone, "I should be asking you if you are all right."

Korra looked at her chest piece, it was still in one piece and her shields recharged. "Just took me by surprise." Korra replied and handed Buck his helmet. He put it back on. "Open the door."

Tanaka placed her hand on the door control, and the exit gate opened. Snow poured in. Osiris exited the crypt and went back into the raging battle between the Storm Covenant and the Prometheans.

"Signal's stronger now." Vale said, "The fortress is up the hill, protected, but up there."

"We shouldn't involve ourselves in the fighting." Buck added, "I'm not much of a sneaky type of guy, but a subtler approach would be nice."

"Yeah…" Korra used the Artemis to gather information of the battlefield, the Kraken was still shooting at the Prometheans near the edge of the mountainside and the flying Z-1800 Phaetons. "Few options, but we could take the ice caves in the side, they have no heat signatures and they lead directly to the fortress."

"Then the caves it is. Pack your ice picks." Buck said.

As they sneaked pass the roaring fight outside, Osiris was checking their corners in the dark icy cavern. "Osiris-One, this is Osiris-Actual, do you read?" Thorne communicated through the comms.

"Osiris-One here, what's going on Thorne?" Korra replied.

"I've made it inside the complex, not much here but empty hallways, they're all in an activation platform. I count 6 Zealots alongside Mdama and Halsey. Awaiting your arrival."

"We're almost there, ETA 5 minutes."

"Copy, Osiris-Actual out."

"Thorne's already inside, let's move it." Korra said, running forward, the others followed. They reached the other side of the cavern, there was a thin layer of ice covering the exit. Korra punched it and it broke apart. There were a couple of Promethean Crawlers on the other side, but Vale used her SMG to quickly destroy them. Osiris walked up to the grey metal wall the overlooked the battlefield. "Alright, we're outside."

A Covenant CCS-battlecruiser exited slipspace in the sky, "Oh look…reinforcements." Tanaka stated. "Don't tell me, more Storm Covenant."

"Let's do this fast then." Korra opened the doors and quickly went inside. The doors shut behind them, they scanned the hallway, there was nothing as Thorne had told her. "Thorne, we're here."

"Understood. Follow the navpoint, it will lead you directly to Halsey." Thorne said. The trek towards the objective was short, this didn't look like a fortress at all, Korra looked around, it resembled an old outpost like those found in Delta Halo and the outer core of Requiem. The team took cover behind some Covenant weapon crates while they looked at the situation ahead. It was an activation platform overlooking the chasm, Halsey was looking at several holograms while Jul breathed down her neck. His Zealot bodyguards were patrolling around them. "Korra, I can take two out from my position, it will distract the others." Thorne informed her.

"Do it on my command."

"Got it."

"Alright guys, Thorne is gonna play distraction for us. He's gonna take two out at random, once he does it will give us enough time to take the others out. I'll go for the reptile king." Korra said.

"That's highly offensive." Vale responded.

"If offensive language was a high velocity bullet I would use it against Jul." Korra replied, "Stick to the plan."

Korra turned on her comms again, "Alright Thorne, take their hats off."

In a mere second, two sniper shots thundered throughout the vast open area and Zealots dropped to the floor dead with a massive hole in their heads. Mdama was caught off-guard, he ignited his energy sword and the other Zealots readied their plasma repeaters. Osiris jumped out of cover and rushed towards their respective targets.

Buck with shotgun at hand unloaded onto his target, the buckshots bouncing off the Elite's advanced shields. The Elite laughed and grabbed Buck by the neck in one swift move. "Pathetic human, your barbaric weapons are useless." It threw Buck onto the ground, Buck quickly stood back up as his shields were 50% drained.

"Alright then…you're a tough customer." Buck said, "But I took the full force of a Knight punch so you're gonna have to do better than that."

"Do not compare my high-class training with those mechanical aberrations, demon." The Elite said in an annoyed voice, it roared as it fired its plasma weapon. The shots hitting Buck but the Spartan rolled out of the way switching to his assault rifle. He fired at the Zealot, the full-metal jacket rounds doing little to the Elite's shields.

"Damn." Buck cursed, so he did the only thing he could do. Tackle the son of a bitch, take the air out of its alien lungs. Buck waited until the Elite stopped shooting and leaped out of cover and ran towards the bigger Zealot at top speeds. The Zealot wasn't expecting a bull rush, and was quickly tackled into the ground with full force. Buck then switched to his pistol but the Elite punched it away and grabbed Buck's helmet with its hands and began to crush his helmet and head inside. "Gaaah!"

Buck unsheathed his titanium-a combat knife and sunk it deep into the Elite's exposed neck. The Zealot gasped in pain as his throat began to fill with blood causing it to start to choke. Buck took the knife out and stood back up as the Elite died on the floor. "Mama always said that it was my edge that made me special."

Tanaka and Vale worked together to take down the two remaining Elites, "Vale, use the plasma pistol of yours to take their shields out." Tanaka said.

"You'll have to distract them to give me enough time to charge it." Vale responded.

"You got your window." Tanaka stood up from cover and shot at the Elites with her battle rifle, the Elites walked towards them unfazed by the bullets hitting their shields. They took their time advancing, not worried at all from the attacks of the pup demons. The plasma repeaters shots on the other hand began to eat through Tanaka's energy shielding. "I hope it's ready!"

Vale quickly came out of cover and fired her overcharged plasma pistol shot to one of the Elites, the charge completely draining the Zealot's shielding leaving it exposed. It was surprised at first but then it roared and ignited its energy sword and made a beeline towards Vale, it's sleek and muscled physique allowed the Zealot to evade every single shot from Tanaka's rifle. "Dammit!"

The Elite jumped over their cover and almost cut Vale's head off, she rolled out of the way. Tanaka was pushed aside by the Elite's free hand, Vale switched to her SMG firing a volley of rounds into the Elite's tough combat harness. The Zealot swung its sword around trying to slice the Spartan into ribbons, but Vale dodged most of the slices, some connecting to her energy shielding and draining it with each close slice. Tanaka regained her composure but the foot of the second Zealot pushed her back into the floor, "Agh!" She grunted.

Buck ran to her aid, shooting the Elite in the head with his shotgun, this time blasting it off completely at such close range. Alien cerebral matter and blood sprayed into Tanaka's white armor, "Ugh." Tanaka said as she was helped up by the older man. "It's going to take weeks to wash this off the armor."

"Hey at least it's not your blood, am I right?" Buck joked.

"Yeah yeah."

Vale was still in a tricky spot, fighting an enraged Zealot at close range was something that only two Spartans have been able to do, but nevertheless she continued to evade the barrage of energy sword attacks from the last Zealot. Its shields began to recharge, meaning that Vale was done for if she didn't act fast. In what seemed to be a moment, when the Elite had its sword hand raised after one of its slice attacks, Vale acted quickly. She slid below the Elite's open legs and rapidly turned to jump over the Zealot's back. Her legs squeezed the Elite's stomach making it loose focus and allowed her to pull its sword arm back and make it slice its own head in two in the process. She jumped off it as the Zealot's body fell dead on the floor and the energy sword snuffed out automatically. Vale sighed in relief.

All that remained was Jul 'Mdama himself. The head of this entire insurrection against the Swords of Sanghelios and the bane of current UNSC supremacy in the galaxy. Korra stood in front of the massive elite commander, her normally imposing figure eclipsed by the colossal seven feet and ten inches tall Sangheili. "We meet once again, Avatar." Mdama said, "Our last confrontation remained inconclusive."

"Then let's finish it." Korra said reloading her battle rifle.

"I have many things to attend to, Avatar. The Didact's Hand will not be delayed any longer, I have discovered the holy grail that will bring the Covenant into renewed glory and death to your race and that weakling Vadam!" Mdama shouted readying his modified energy sword, the Vorpal Talon of Mdama.

Jul went into the offensive, Halsey got out of the way, not wanting to be caught in the incoming crossfire. Korra fired her weapon, the bullets bouncing off Mdama's shielding. He was wearing high-grade Field Marshal armor configurations, outdated configurations last used in the Fall of Reach, but sturdy and strong still. Korra kept firing but her attacks were to no avail, he was just too strong. Korra dropped her rifle and looked-for alternatives. "There!" There was a discarded energy sword in one of the dead Elite bodies, the Elite killed by Buck. She ran towards it.

"As expected, you humans are nothing but vultures." Mdama stated as Korra took the energy sword out of the Zealot's dead body. She ignited the sword. "A duel then."

Mdama swung his powerful blade onto Korra, she blocked her with her sword, the clash produced a crackling sound and small particles of electricity jumped out of the interlocked energy blades. Korra kicked Mdama away, then counterattacked, her sword strikes hitting Mdama's Vorpal Talon, none of them connecting to either shielding or flesh. "Meaningless strikes fueled by incompetence." Mdama taunted, "I do not see the destroyer of the Gravemind here, nor the Didact's assassin either. Just another armored pup." Mdama swatted Korra aside, ripper her helmet away. She fell on the floor; her shields having been popped.

Mdama stood over her and swung his sword to deliver the final blow but Korra reacted quickly and blocked it with her energy sword. "Witness your death in my eyes, Avatar. Retribution for the Didact's death." The swords began to near Korra's face, she felt the intense heat radiating from the energy sword's plasma blades. Desperation began to flood Korra's mind, she began to panic. She couldn't shrug the Elite off her, he was too strong, too powerful… Korra screamed as Mdama laughed.

It seemed to be the end, but then…Mdama's eyes widened when instead of seeing the dead eyes of his enemy, he was met with the intense glowing eyes of the Avatar State. Korra pushed him off as he were paper as she began to hover in a whirlwind of air. "By the Twin Jewels of Maethrillian…" Mdama said in awe.

But as quickly as she entered the mythical Avatar State, Korra collapsed into the floor, unconscious. Buck, Tanaka, and Vale quickly ran to her side, aiming their weapons at Mdama. The Storm leader roared in anger, he was outnumbered, but then a phantom swooped in and fired its turrets at Osiris and Halsey. They took cover, Buck pulling Korra to safety. Mdama was rescued by the remaining of his forces, the phantom then flew away.

"Area clear." Tanaka said after the phantom had left. "What the hell was that?"

Buck looked at the unconscious Korra, "That's what makes her special, Tanaka." Halsey looked at them, and then at Korra. She had noticed something that the others hadn't.

* * *

 _Two Hours Later…_

* * *

 **UNSC Saratoga**

 **Kamchatka's Orbit**

 **October 20** **th** **[Earth Calendar]**

Korra sat on a medical bed in the medical wing of the ship, the Covenant fleet had left, and the frigate was waiting for the arrival of the UNSC Infinity. Korra looked at her cracked helmet, 'What happened…?' she thought to herself, 'The Avatar State, it shouldn't have worked. What's going on?'

The doors to her room opened, in walked an officer with a black uniform. Office of Naval Intelligence. "Agent, report." He said.

"Buck already made the report." Korra replied.

"Report, agent."

Korra sighed, "We were able to penetrate enemy defenses and remain undetected by the end of the battle between the Covenant and the Prometheans. We attacked Jul 'Mdama and his bodyguards, we took them down but Mdama was tougher than I thought he would be. He almost overpowered me…until I somehow tapped into the Avatar State. I knocked him off but then...I fell unconscious. My team told me that he escaped via phantom and later the entire fleet left, and the Prometheans disappeared. The doctors said that I only have minor wounds though."

"Hm. The Admiral will receive this, agent. Here." The ONI representative gave her a small ticket.

"What is this?"

"A two week leave of absence. The Admiral believes that you have earned it, agent. We will contact you otherwise." The representative then left, leaving Korra with her thoughts. Home…she would be coming back home after five long years. She smiled…but then she frowned. How would she return? She never replied to Asami's correspondence…Korra placed her hands on her head.

The door opened again, "Hey, you okay?" It was Buck, he sat next to her.

"Yeah…" She wiped some tears away. "Just some cuts and bruises, doc says I'm already healing."

"Spartan healing factor, am I right? Comes in real handy." Buck said jokingly, he noticed Korra's ticket in her hand. "You're going on break?"

"Top brass says that I deserve it." Korra said looking at the ticket again, "I'm…not sure how to go back home."

"Space life can do that to you. After I returned to Draco III, things weren't the same you know. Well the planet was glassed, not a lot, but still the nuclear winter was already gone by then. My return home wasn't…ideal. I was part of a mission to retake the planet from an Insurrectionist cell. A lot of stuff happened, but a trooper died under my command. I've never forgiven myself for allowing him to be killed under my command." Buck said while remembering the sound of a gun…and the sound of a body hitting the cold hard ground. "I've denied the command of a squad of troopers since then."

"I guess now I know why I'm in command, right?" Korra tried to lighten up the mood. Buck smirked. "Did you get a shore leave ticket too?"

"Yeah." Buck showed her his, "We all did. Was thinking of going back to Sundown, meet with the wife there."

"You never talked about Veronica much." Korra said, "Hiding something?"

"Shhhh…she's a spook. She could be watching me right now." Buck joked, they laughed. "Hey just don't think too hard about it, go back home and take a breather, alright?"

"Yeah…thanks, Buck."

"No problem, kid." Buck left the room. Korra breathed in and breathed out.

"Well then…time to go back home."


	4. Lost Colony

**Shield World-0001 aka "Requiem"**

 **Epoloch System**

 **Afternoon**

 **October 21** **st**

The UNSC Saratoga entered atmosphere, the ship had seen a lot of action during the war, having been one of the few Epsilon Eridani Fleet vessels to have survived the Fall of Reach, and then made it through the Battle of Earth intact. It's a Paris-class heavy frigate, sturdy defense plating, and point defense turrets online, a living monument of the past and an inspiration to the crew of the newer Strident-class and Anlace-class frigates. The ship landed on the Sussex shipyard in an island north of Kyoshi Island. The UNSC had constructed the shipyard over the once empty island, replacing the lands with iron and steel. "Bay 23, Saratoga." Tower control instructed.

"Copy, Tower-2." One of the ship pilots replied as the Saratoga parked within Bay 23. The shipyard was enormous, easily the third biggest human construct on top of the Shield World, behind the city of Ba Sing Se in the Earth Kingdom and the space elevator near Republic City. Frigates were designed to operate in atmosphere, the Saratoga had small thrusters beneath its hangar bay, the lowest area of the entire ship, and it used them to slowly descend towards the bay's apron. There automated robotic arms would extend from each side of the bay's walls and then connect to the frigate to park it parallelly to the connector catwalk.

"Alright everyone, we're here. You're all in a two-week shore leave, have fun and remember to always brush your teeth every morning, you won't have me out there to help you out." Commander Ulysses Wilson said, his voice sounding across the ship's speaker system.

Korra stripped off her armor, and decided to go back home in her dress uniform. As a ONI agent, she was still part of the UNSC Navy, so her uniform was like that of a naval officer, but instead of the pearl white that most officers wore, the dress uniform was colored all black with her belt and the details of the uniform being colored white. Her officer's hat was white with the logo of the UNSC eagle detailing the front of it. She sighed, finally home, after such a long time. She stepped out of her quarters and made her way out. Korra caught a transport ship heading to camp Preston Cole in Republic City, there she would take a cab to Yue Bay and then finally catch the afternoon ferry to Air Temple Island. She would drop unannounced, give everyone a big surprise, she smiled.

* * *

 **Republic City, United Republic of Nations**

 **Afternoon**

After the transport ship landed on the 12th Hangar Bay of Camp Preston Cole, Korra rode the monorail out of the hangar towards the terminal, there was a window on the roof of the monorail, she looked up and saw the blue sky still above.

There it was, like a lingering omen…Halo.

The Halo ring still orbited the Shield World, it had been deactivated after the Ur-Didact's defeat, but the UNSC has been careful in not disturbing the innards of the ring. Previous contact records of Alpha and Delta Halo suggest that the Halo rings contain Sentinel-controlled facilities that are Forerunner containment facilities that are purposely hidden in the deepest areas of the ring. The most that the science teams have been able to recover were the Activation Index, several glyphs, some of the smaller frozen Prometheans, several artifacts and data within the ring's cartographer and control room.

The sight of the ring sent shivers down Korra's spine, but she shook them off as the monorail stopped. Carrying a small duffle bag containing personal belongings like a change of clothes, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a medal, Korra stepped out of the entrance of the camp. The looming sight of the space elevator was awe inspiring, even from kilometers away, it connected to the Super MAC station in geo-synched orbit, Republic Station. Walking towards midtown, she looked at the changed city, it was obvious now that the UEG and by extension the UNSC had formally colonized Requiem and have made it part of the colonies worlds of Earth. New advanced buildings decorated the skyline of the city alongside the native buildings that the city has had before the UNSC appeared into the scene. Misriah Armory, Weapon System Technologies, Traxus, and the BXR Mining Corporation had opened businesses here, their buildings illuminating the skyline with their neon-light signs at nightfall.

Korra called for a cab and asked the driver to take her to Yue Bay, the nearest dock to Air Temple Island. She rode shotgun inside the new line Satomobile taxi, on their way towards the docks, the driver had been taking looks at her. "Is there an issue?" Korra asked.

"Oh nothing, just that you remind me of someone." The taxi driver replied.

"I get that a lot."

The cab stopped at the docks, Korra paid the man 5 credits in coins, which would equal to 20 yuan when converted to the local currency used in the United Republic of Nations, and the cab rode off. Korra turned around to look at the bay, the sun was setting, and the fading light of the day reflected off the bronze statue of Avatar Aang. She sighed again. Everything went in such a radical path…such a different path that her seventeen-year-old self would've never imagined. She was now twenty-three years old, and had seen so many things. So many things. Korra saw one of the ferrymen still inside his wooden boat, probably finishing for the day, that is until Korra approached him. "Excuse me, sir, could you take me to Air Temple Island? I have an important meeting with Master Tenzin." Korra asked the man.

The older man looked at her, he caught his breath, he recognized her. The old ferryman always took her and her friends back and forth from the island so many years ago. Her eyes were still the same aqua color, and were still as vibrant. "Yes of course, young lady. Come on in, I'll take you there." He said, the ferryman didn't say a word about him recognizing Korra.

Stepping off the boat and walking down the dock, Korra looked at the temple, the lights inside were still on…a part of her feared stepping up those steps and knocking on the door. She swallowed some saliva and walked towards the door holding tightly to the strap of her duffle bag. She extended her right arm and closed fist towards the wooden door, ready to knock. She held back, instead re-adjusting her hat. "Okay…all right, I can do this." Korra said to herself. She knocked on the door and waited. Even as an augmented super soldier, she could feel a sense of fear creeping in her, what if they never accepted her again? Did they believe her to be dead? Have they moved on? Korra thought that this is what many returning veterans felt after returning home from war. She heard steps approaching the door from the other side. The door opened.

A gasp came out of Korra's lips, she hadn't expected it. "Korra...?" Mako said from the other side of the opened door. His eyes met hers, it had been a long time.

"…Mako." She said, they didn't say a word, they just looked at each other. The silence was broken when Tenzin came to the door.

"Korra!" He ran to hug his former apprentice.

"Hey Tenzin…" She hugged him back, her officer hat fallen off. "Gotta say that the ride here was really long."

"Yes, come inside!" Tenzin walked her inside with Mako shutting the door.

* * *

 **UNSC Infinity**

 **Orbiting Planet Earth**

 **Sol System**

Captain Lasky walked back to the bridge after having supper at the mess hall with some of his officers and the marines. Commander Palmer joined him on his way back, "So, got anything planned for tonight?" She asked him.

"Just more paperwork from FLEETCOM, nothing major, just a lot of status reports and colonial reports incoming from Requiem." He said, "The battle over at Kamchatka was such a success that they have graced me with enough of papers to sign to last me a week."

"Ah come on, Tom, you were the one who planned the operation from head to toe. And because of you we have Halsey back aboard. Speaking of her, when does ONI want her for questioning?" Palmer asked.

"They said they would let me know. Has she said anything since?"

"Nothing more than 'she's coming' and the occasional 'we must go to Meridian', non-sense really." Palmer replied.

"I wouldn't be so quick in saying that, Sarah." They entered the bridge, "I'll speak with her later about it though."

"Roger that, but Captain, you haven't told me yet if you'll be busy tonight."

"Oh."

"Sir, incoming signal from…uh…ONI." A bridge officer said.

"Sigh…patch them through." Lasky said, the comms system came only showing the face of Admiral Serin Osman, the commander-in-chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence herself. "Admiral." Lasky saluted along with Palmer and the rest of the bridge crew.

"At ease, Infinity. I wanted to congratulate on your most recent accomplishment personally, Captain. You've done a fine job in securing Dr. Halsey." Osman said.

"Thanks, ma'am."

"We will give you further details on that later, right now though, I have a mission for you and your crew."

"What do you need of us, ma'am?" Lasky asked.

On top of the hologram table a holographic image appeared, "Captain, this is Argent Moon, one of ONI's top research installations. Here we studied Forerunner technology and top-secret research, but a few months ago it drifted away from the orbit of its anchor planet. We suspected the worst for it and the crew of scientists inside." Osman informed him. "Interestingly just two weeks ago we intercepted a message sent from Kig-Yar pirates to Mdama's Covenant. They sold the installation to the Covenant to be used for their war against the Swords of Sanghelios."

"That would give Jul a considerable advantage over the Arbiter." Lasky commented.

"Indeed, Captain. I need you and your ship to travel towards Argent Moon's original location and then tap into its signature, and once you find it to send a team of your finest SPARTAN team aboard to secure the station. I am conscious that Blue Team is currently aboard your vessel, is that correct?" Osman said.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Then better get to it, Captain. ONI out." The conversation ended.

"That woman always gives me a nauseous feeling." Palmer said, "So, should I get Blue Team informed?"

"Yeah, tell them what their mission is, we'll be making a slipspace jump to the Tanuab system in 30 minutes." Lasky ordered her. Palmer left for Blue Team, he looked at the holographic still of Argent Moon.

* * *

 **Air Temple Island**

 **Republic City**

 **Evening**

Korra sat on the main couch in the living room, she held onto her white gloved hands and looked at them, she hoped that they wouldn't notice her…physical additions, the dress pants and black boots were good at covering the cybernetics, but still she feared the possibility. Mako was sitting next to her as Tenzin was speaking through the phone with Lin Beifong. Pema approached her and gave her a cup of warm tea, "Oh Korra it's been so long, how've you been?" Pema asked.

"Yeah, there's been no letters back, no word in your condition, nothing. Not even Captain Lasky or Marine brass knew where you were." Mako added sounding worried.

"I've been…fine. Just recovering, that's all." Korra lied not telling them what had been happening, but she forgot one important detail. There was an insignia sewed into the left arm of her dress uniform, it had the Spartan Eagle with the words 'Semper Vigilans' written below it. Mako noticed it, his eyes narrowed, he knew what it was and to what organization it belonged.

He was thinking of confronting Korra about it, his Orbital Drop Shock Trooper training told him to always go forward with what he thought should be the right course of action, and right now he needed to know how and why Korra, the Avatar, was involved with the ONI spooks and why the hell she was wearing the Spartan insignia…but they were interrupted by Tenzin who got off the phone. "Great news, Lin is coming tomorrow morning to see you Korra. She is currently busy in preparations for Kuvira's speech tomorrow at noon along with President Raiko." Tenzin informed them. He took a seat to the right side of where Korra sat, practically she was in the middle of Tenzin and Mako, she tensed up imagining the questions he would ask her. Pema stood up from her chair and went to check up on Rohan who was running around with crayons out to the backyard.

'Perfect timing.' Mako thought, he would now ask what he needed to know. "Korra, I wanted to ask…I mean, I know you look different, that's clear. But why are you wearing the Spartan Eagle? Why the ONI motto? Why the uniform?" He asked directly.

"Now Mako, Korra's back and we should…" Tenzin was interrupted by Korra's sighed.

She knew that someone as sharp as Mako would ask up front, "After the Master Chief took me to be…revived by medics. My dying body was taken to some UNSC facility in deep space, I don't know what happened between the time I collapsed on the Halo and when I woke up on the hospital bed. When I woke up, my legs had been amputated…" She pulled up part of her right leg's pant revealing to them the smooth metallic bionic leg. The mouths of the two men were wide open in both amazement and surprise. "…doctors said they couldn't be saved, bones shattered into pieces and sliced through veins and arteries. My body had been poisoned by mercury, and the trauma broke my connection to Raava…and bending. I don't know why, but after being semi-recovered, I was told that I had been signed up to be next in line in becoming a Spartan."

"A Spartan!?" Tenzin couldn't believe it.

"I was augmented a week after being given the all clear from the hospital. My strength, speed, reflexes, senses, everything…was improved. I could break steel bars with my bare hands without needed to metalbend, I could jump several feet in the air without the need of airbending, and I could run faster than a speeding warthog going at 40 miles per hour. But I never recovered my connection to Raava…or my bending completely. I tried, I meditated for days…but nothing. And it's been difficult not being able to talk to you guys…sometimes I didn't know what to do…until I met them." Korra said trying to steel herself and not showing any sign of possible weakness.

"Them?" Tenzin asked.

"ONI." Mako answered, "They turned you into a super soldier, why?"

"I can't say." Korra said, "I can't say what my job description with ONI is, all I can say is that I'm part of NavSpecWar, Naval Special Warfare Command, Special Warfare Group Seventeen. That's really all I can tell about what I do. Sorry."

Mako knew that the spooks at ONI would keep her at a tight leash, something still felt wrong despite her being at least partially honest with the secrecy. "And you're on leave?"

"Yeah, for a while anyway." Korra replied, "Listen, I'm sorry for dropping unannounced and that the reasons of me being still alive are…covered in all this secrecy, but I wouldn't have done it if I didn't have a good reason."

"Then what's the reason?" Mako asked.

"I'm still the Avatar, even if I can't contact Raava, I still have a responsibility, and that means doing anything to protect everyone on this planet, even the people on other worlds." Korra responded clearly. Mako smiled.

"Still as headstrong and brave as I remember." Mako relaxed, at least the spooks didn't brainwash her into believing their agenda. Korra blushed.

"Well, it seems that Mako isn't the only one doing their part in the colony protecting job." Tenzin said, "He's been hard at work rising up the ranks in the ODSTs."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeup yup, I would like to introduce you to Gunnery Sergeant Mako, hold your applause." Mako said rising his hands as if calming an audience of adoring fans.

"Wow, that's great news Mako!" Korra congratulated him, "I guess you're on break too."

"Took a two day leave to come here, everyone in the corps is taking a day off I heard, since yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the Battle of Earth" Mako said, "Gotta get back to duty tomorrow. Actually, took a two day leave to see you since I heard from Tenzin that you were coming today in the morning."

"It was miscommunication, I was told that a merchant ship would be trading with the Southern Water Tribe, I assumed that you would be coming along with it." Tenzin said.

"My current post is overseeing security for the ceremony tomorrow, like Tenzin said Captain Kuvira is speaking to world leaders and handling over control of the re-organized Earth Kingdom to Prince Wu at noon, a representative from the UNSC is going to attend so some of my ODSTs and I will be beefing up the United Forces' security detail." Mako said, "I don't know how I went from fighting aliens in the frontier to guard duty, but orders are orders."

"Hey, so, I think I should take some time to rest. It's been a long time since I've been so could one of you show me where my room here was?" Korra asked them while she stood up and grabbed her duffle back. "Er I mean, if that's alright with you Tenzin, I could always find a place to stay in the city."

"No no, by all means stay. Mako could you show her where the room is? I got to contract Tonraq."

"Sure thing, follow me." Mako said.

As the two walked out of the main temple building where Tenzin and his family lived, they walked towards the women living quarters of the island, males and females slept in different areas of the island like the ancient Airbenders did over 100 years ago. The light of the full moon above shone above them, and the night sky was starry, Korra hadn't seen a night like these since she was eighteen years old. She looked around, the training arena, Tenzin's weird airbending contraption she used to be 'a leaf in the wind', the tower area, all of this brought her back memories…long, distant, memories. That's when she spotted the lights coming from the Pro-Bending Arena on the other side of Yue Bay, she stopped and looked at the arena. It shone bright gold from all the lights and the sounds of people laughing and satomobiles honking their horns in the distance. Korra's mouth had a big smile on it, "I haven't seen that silly smile of yours in quite the while." Mako said standing next to her with his hands in his pockets.

"Oh, uh, just remembering stuff." Korra said.

"I still remember the first time I met you, when Bolin brought you to our side of the arena's locker rooms. I thought you were one of his fangirls." Mako said.

"Yeah, well, back then I might as well have been one." Korra responded, "I was so mesmerized with the arena, the people, the sport…everything."

"A tribe girl like yourself? I bet." Mako joked.

"Hey now, I'm a compound girl thank you very much." Korra laughed. "Hey…"

"Yeah?"

"What we had…is it gone?"

Mako stood silently looking at the arena, he still thought. He had tried to think about Korra after her vanishing following the battle on the ring and focused on his military life, but the thought always crept back into his mind every now and again. Wondering where she was, what had happened to her. And now, here she was, standing next to him, revived for all he knows and better than ever. "I don't know, years have passed and so many things have happened since then, I just don't know." He said pulling his right hand out of his pocket and rubbing the back of his head. "Would it work out? I don't even know if it could."

"Yeah…you're probably right." Korra said, Mako could feel the disappointment in Korra's voice. He sighed.

"Come on, room's this way."

They entered a long wooden hallway that had the women's dormitories in it, Mako led Korra to the last one. "Here it is. No one has been it for a long time, so I think your stuff's still in here."

"Yeah, I hope so, only brought one change of clothes." Korra said.

"Looking at you I don't know if your old tribe garb will fit you…now that you are a bit taller." Mako stated.

"Eh." Korra brushed it off and entered the room, Mako followed her in. She turned on the candle with some firebending.

"I thought you said that your bending was gone." Mako said.

"Some of it has been coming back to me, nothing too big, just the basics." Korra placed her bag on the bed, it had light blue sheets. She walked to the closet on the opposite side where her bed was and opened it up. Inside there were two of her old shirts, a pair of blue pants, three pair of tribe boots, and her parka. It all had been kept clean…she will need to thank Pema later. "Nothing like home sweet home."

"Anyway, I should probably be heading back to base and tell my squad what their orders are for tomorrow. It's been…good to see you again, Korra." Mako said turning to leave. Korra stopped him by grabbing his arm, Mako felt as if an industrial crane had taken a hold of his arm and squeezed it a bit. He turned around and ignored the want to rub his right forearm. "Yeah?"

She hugged him, Mako again felt like being squeezed by an Elite, but he hugged her back. "It's good to see you again." Korra said as her head rested on his left shoulder and tears began to form in her eyes.

"I've missed you too."

* * *

 **About 1 mile from Argent Moon**

 **October 22** **nd** **[Earth Calendar]**

A Pelican approached the believed to be lost ONI Argent Moon base, an asteroid field surrounded the immense station, so most UNSC recovering ships would be useless in navigating in a place like this. Piloting the pelican was Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John-117 (Blue One), and in the pelican hangar, was the rest of Blue Team: Lieutenant Junior Grade Frederic-104 (Blue Three), Petty Officer First Class Kelly-087 (Blue Two), and Petty Officer First Class Linda-058 (Blue Four).

John looked at the back of his helmet, running his thumb over the empty data chip slot, he got a signal from Infinity approving the mission parameters, and placed his helmet back on. While in the hangar bay, Blue Team prepared for insertion. "Got your stuff ready, Linda? A sniper rifle won't be too good in those tight corridors." Fred asked.

"Tight corridors are just half the station, Fred. Lots of open areas inside, and someone will need to cover your ugly mug." Linda replied loading her specialized sniper rifle, the Nornfang. Fred smirked.

"Hey if anyone needs close quarters protection, I got you covered." Kelly said putting her specialized shotgun, the Oathsworn, on her back.

"You think that John's okay? He's been rather quiet as of late." Fred asked, adjusting the smart-link of his DMR.

"Do you know John?" Linda asked.

"Yeah, I know, just he hasn't really been himself since what happened on the Halo." Fred added.

"He hasn't been the same since he and the girl blew up Didact's ship over Earth you mean." Kelly corrected him, "Cortana was killed there."

"He hasn't spoken much of her." Fred said. "All I know is that she was an AI made from Halsey's flash cloned brain."

"Same." Linda said.

"We can ask him after the mission's over." Kelly said as the Master Chief exited the cockpit and joined them. "John, we're ready."

"We'll be making vacuum insertion by this window." Master Chief showed them a holographic view of the area they are entering Argent Moon from. "Hangar bays are occupied with abandoned ships and full of heavy Covenant Storm troops."

"So, we're flying through a window?" Linda asked.

"Creative." Fred said.

"Once inside we'll be heading to the data center and find out what happened aboard. After that, we will go to the main reactor and set the station on a self-destruct countdown and evacuate within a Longsword fighter stationed here." Chief pointed to hangar 77, "The station's weapon systems will be enough to get the job done."

"Understood." Kelly acknowledged. Chief approached the pelican's hangar door and pressed the red button which turned green. Blue Team stood next to the Master Chief, prepared to follow him.

"Mission start." Chief said.


	5. Deadly Designs

**The Government Palace**

 **Republic City, United Republic of Nations**

 **Shield World-0001 designated "Requiem"**

 **Epoloch System**

 **October 23** **rd** **[Earth Calendar]**

 **Morning**

"Unbelievable! Absolutely unbelievable!" Prince Wu, heir to the Throne of Earth of the Earth Kingdom, yelled as he walked back and forth within the walls of the Government Palace, home of the Republic's President. "How come he isn't here yet!? How come she isn't here yet?!"

"Calm down, your majesty, I'm sure that the President will be coming down shortly." Gunnery Sergeant Mako, squad leader of ODST squad Lima-Bravo, told the impatient prince.

"If I were king right now I would order that plebian to be publicly humiliated!" Wu yelled out, gaining attention of the palace guards. "The whole crowd is already outside along with the Fire Lady, the Water Chieftain, and Master Tenzin! And that fascist Kuvira hasn't shown her stupid perfect jawline at all yet!"

Mako sighed, 'When they said guard duty they never said personal detail to the biggest blue-blooded snot in this side of the galaxy.' He thought to himself as he rubbed his head, 'Nothing but nagging all day.'

President Raiko walked down the steps to the main hall where Mako and Wu where waiting. "I see that you are ready, Prince Wu." He said adjusting his bowtie.

"More than ready!" Wu replied.

"Then let's meet the citizens outside and get started with this ceremony." Raiko said, "Sergeant, follow us." Mako nodded. The trio walked outside, Mako putting on his ODST helmet and placing his Silenced SMG on his right thigh magnetic holster, always at the ready. The palace guards also followed to be near the President. Once outside they were met with camera flashes and the voices of several reporters asking questions, one asking for the possible atrocities committed by Kuvira in her efforts of liberating the Earth Kingdom from anarchists and the Red Lotus, and another asking for the whereabouts of Avatar Korra. President Raiko walked towards the microphone addressing the crowd. "Good morning ladies and gentlemen, we've gathered here today, representatives of all four nations and the cradle world, Earth, to witness the transferring of power from Captain Kuvira, leader of the liberating forces, to the Earth Kingdom heir, Prince Wu. This ceremony will be a shining example of the peace that we all can forge when we come together not only as people, but as a race, that fights for liberty, truth, and justice."

While the President spoke, Mako turned on his radio, he whispered to his squamates. "Is everyone in their positions?"

"Kendrick here, I'm on the building overlooking the palace entrance. Nothing out of the ordinary." Corporal Kendrick Lamar, second in command of Lima-Bravo and team marksman and Earth native, informed.

"Ilia here, making rounds around the perimeter on a warthog, Luis is with me manning the turret." Private First-Class Ilia, a Northern Water Tribe native and vehicle and explosives expert, said.

"Luis here, yeah everything's alright." Private Luis Santiago, the heavy-weapons expert and Tribute native, said.

"Good, keep your eyes open, this is the kind of event that the Red Lotus would love to mess up with." Mako told them, "Mako out." He turned off his radio focusing on the ceremony again.

"I would like to welcome Captain Thomas Lasky of the UNSC Infinity to the microphone and give a few words to Prince Wu before he takes his rightful place as the Earth King." President Raiko said, the crowd and those seated behind the microphone clapped as Lasky, in ceremonial dress uniform, stood up and walked up to the stage.

"Thank you, Mr. President. When I was younger I attended military school, Corbulo Academy, there my classmates and I were taught that Earth was our sole beacon of hope across the galaxy, the place where humanity would always have as home. We were told to protect our native world at any cost, even if that meant the sacrifice of the outer colonies. Of course, this led to the rationale that the colonies were below Earth, below the home world's culture. But the day that my ship found this world, this lost colony, that rationale was wiped off my head. Never in my young years would've I imagined that there was another human world with a variety of rich cultures, history, and people. This nation, the United Republic, has also shown that democracy and justice is prevalent throughout the galaxy, without Earth's intervention. And this peaceful handing down of power proves that our species, humanity, still believes in the core virtues that President Raiko talked about before… liberty, justice, and truth. Thank you." Captain Lasky stepped off the stage finishing his speech with the loud applause from the crowd. He sat on next to the Water Tribe Chieftain, Tonraq.

"Good speech there, Captain." Tonraq congratulated Lasky.

"Well it was improvised." Lasky smirked, wiping sweat from his brow with a cloth napkin. Tonraq smiled and watched as the President took front stage once again.

Mako saw a large satomobile stop by the other side of the fenced courtyard where the stage had been erected and the crowd stood on. Out of the satomobile walked out Kuvira, the liberator of the Earth Kingdom, alongside her walked a Spartan in full armor, Mako gulped a bit. "You guys seeing what I'm seeing?" He asked.

"Yeah, a goddamned Spartan, what the hell is he doing here with her?" Kendrick asked.

"Security detail?" Ilia added.

"Keep your eyes opened." Mako told them as he looked back at the crowd, who gasped as Kuvira walked onto the stage with her Spartan bodyguard. Mako, cladded in black ODST body armor looked pathetic in comparison with the Spartan, enveloped in MJOLNIR NOBLE sage power armor, standing next to him.

"Now, Prince Wu and Captain Kuvira will commence the handing down of power." President Raiko allowed them to take frontstage. The crowd clapped as the two stepped forward. In the crowd stood Korra, dressed in her old water tribe garb, watching the ceremony. When she looked at Kuvira, she felt uneased by her serious expression. Something was wrong here, and that Spartan only fed her dread.

Kuvira had a case in her hand, she placed it on the wooden floor of the stage, and opened it, revealing a gold crown. She took it out and held it in her hands, Wu had a medal in his. They exchanged the items and the crowd cheered. Kuvira turned to Prince Wu, "Could I say some words?" She asked.

"Of course." Wu replied with a big smile on his face.

Kuvira walked to the mic, "It's been five years since the Earth Kingdom fell into chaos thanks to the actions of Zaheer and his Red Lotus. Five long years have I led a battalion of brave soldiers to liberate the kingdom. Through my mission I realized something, it didn't work, the kingdom, it fell because Queen Hou-Ting's blatant hubris and maltreatment of her subjects. Several places where we visited, they had been left in ruin long before Zaheer's coup. Disgusting." The crowd was taken aback by Kuvira's words, so were Wu and the other representatives. "You might think that this handing down of power will bring back the status quo, and that that is a good thing. It isn't. I'm here to tell you that this ceremony is nothing but a farce." She metalbended the medal into scrap. "From this day forward, the Earth Kingdom is no more. I will lead it into a better nation, stronger and ordered, from this day forward the Earth Empire is born." Kuvira walked off the stage with her Spartan guard behind her, the reporters quickly jolted to ask questions as the President tried to defuse the situation.

"What the hell was that?" Lasky asked Tenzin as the other leaders walked back into the palace.

"I don't know, Captain, but this reek of treachery." Tenzin replied.

Korra was furious, she knew just by looking at Kuvira that things would turn out for the worst. She walked through the crowd and climbed up to the stage. She couldn't allow this to happen, not on her watch. Mako noticed her, "Korra, what are you doing?!"

She tapped the President on the shoulder, he turned and gasped once he looked at her. "May I?" She asked, and he backed away. She took the microphone. "People of Republic City!" Everyone fell silent, the world leaders turned as soon as her voice boomed through the speakers. Kuvira stopped and turned to see who spoke before she got into her satomobile. "What happened here is a blatant taking of power in the most unjustified manner possible! Kuvira cannot be allowed to continue with this, she has violated the trust of everyone in the world, including those she liberated in the Earth Kingdom! I will not allow her to go through with this. I am Avatar Korra, and I have returned." Everyone with a radio heard Korra's words, every single person. Asami listened to the broadcast, surprise washed over her face and later a warm smile appeared. Bolin, while washing his hair listened to the broadcast. He smirked and laughed, she was back. In a dark room a figure listened to the radio, "Déjà vu." The man said. Korra walked away from the microphone and approached Mako as the crowd roared leaving the poor President to deal with them alone…again.

"You're crazy, you know, right?" Mako told her.

"No way I'm letting that lunatic get away in thinking she had the final word." Korra said. She looked at Kuvira, their gazes connected. She entered her satomobile, the Spartan followed next. They quickly left afterwards. Then the thought fell on her head… "Oh spirits, what I've gotten myself into…."

* * *

 **Argent Moon**

Three Elites, one Zealot and two Warriors, were disposing of several pieces of automated defenses, the last ones in this sector. "The unggoy are getting restless, what should we do?" One of the Elite asked the bigger one, the Zealot.

"Throw them out of the airlock!" The Zealot responded in a clearly annoyed tone as he walked towards the other room. But before the other Elites could follow the order, a single sniper rifle bullet ripped through the large window that was close to them, the bullet ripped thought the glass and through the heads of the Elites. The window shattered, and Blue Team jet packed in, the vacuum of space began sucking everything out, but the Spartans activated the magnetic properties of their boots to stick to the metal floor. The Zealot ignited his energy sword and tried to swing it at the Spartan-IIs but the pull of the vacuum of space threw the Elite into space before the energy blades touched the outer layer of energy shields of the Master Chief. A metal emergency sealing gate then automatically covered the window.

"Coast's clear." Fred said, walking towards one of the room's exits.

The Master Chief approached to one of the nodes within the room, looking through data logs, "Not much information. Last dated log was several months ago." Chief said, "I'll share it to your HUDs."

Small texts appeared in each of the Spartans' visors, "This is the log of one of the technicians of this sector, an engineer. Says here that there had been a leak in the science wing, they were working on a biological super weapon." Kelly said. "He didn't have many details, he knew because his girlfriend was the assistant to the assistant director of the science team stationed here."

"Then what happened?" Linda asked. Fred walked out of the room, finding several human corpses on the floor, all with their uniforms intact.

"I can tell you what." Fred replied, "They're dead."

"But how?" Kelly asked.

"We'll find out more as we head towards the moon's core." Chief responded walking pass Fred with Assault Rifle ready.

Exiting the room, they found themselves overlooking a hangar. It was massive, easily dwarfing any hangar made for frigates. There was a strange looking vessel parked in it, "Looks unfinished." Linda said. "ONI must've poured a lot of credits into this place."

"Advanced research in defense and offensive weapons, biological research, chemical warfare, and possibly more shady things hidden in this ball of metal and rock." Fred replied, "If anything, it wasn't the Covenant who raided this place, they must've just found it like this."

"Possibly." Chief said coming up to another terminal, this was an AI port, and its light was blinking. He tapped the light, and the recorded avatar of a smart AI appeared on top of the terminal.

"This is UNSC artificial intelligence RKR 1206-5, Rooker. This is a warning to any possible Office of Naval Intelligence salvage teams who have been able to find Argent Moon. Six months ago, from today's date, September 17, 2557, there was an accident involving the release of a poisonous substance from the science wing's ventilation systems. I tried halting the spread of the substance by quarantining half of the station, but it was too late, the entire crew was dead in a matter of hours. There was nothing else I could do to save them…so I jettisoned the entire station into uncharted space hoping that eventually the gas would dissipate into the vacuum of space. I've unfortunately entered rampancy, and I will not be of operational use anymore soon, so I decided to put a warning to all those who decide to enter deeper into the station. Most of the toxic gas has not been thrown off the station, something happened to the crew in the science wing after I quarantined that section…something horrible. Please, do not go in, I beg of you. This is AI Rooker, former caretaker of Argent Moon, signing off." The terminal then stopped working.

"Yeah, we're blowing this place up." Linda stated.

"You don't think…" Kelly said. She looked at Fred, he wasn't sure what to think. None of them had faced the very thing that had drove the Forerunners into extinction…the only enemy the Covenant feared.

"Samples must've been taken off from Installation 03." Chief said, "They ignored the signs, the reports."

"They just couldn't leave well enough alone." Linda said.

* * *

 **Council Chamber**

 **Republic City**

 **Noon**

After the rewriting of the United Republic's constitution, the Council was no longer the sole seat of power in the country. The establishment of the executive and legislative branches of government ensured that in an event that the nation was once again in a position in which several heads of government were in severe danger that the nation would not fall into chaos. This would allow the power not to be kept to a tight knit group of people not elected by the citizens of the Republic since the councilmembers were elected by the rulers of the other four nations. But the council would enact new laws, and keep the balance among all three branches of government. The council room was empty, not in session, but that did not stop the President of the United Republic to assemble a small group of individuals within it.

"Alright, what do we do now? This is something that none of us were readied for." President Raiko said.

"Kuvira has crossed the line, Raiko. She must be stopped." Tenzin insisted, "But we cannot openly declare war, not yet."

"I agree. Barely a century has passed since the end of the Hundred Years War, and the wounds are still fresh. The Fire Nation will not be dragged into another armed conflict." The Fire Lady added, "But we will not stand by if Kuvira threatens us. In any case I hope that you have a plan in dealing with her."

"The Water Tribes can lend a hand, we have communities within the Earth Kingdom, we cannot allow Kuvira in subjugating them into her new Empire." Tonraq stated.

"Your daughter has returned, Chieftain. And none worse for wear." President Raiko said, "She is still the Avatar, she could deal with Kuvira herself."

Captain Lasky, who had been sitting a few meters away from the heads of government stood up. "Korra is officially a member of the United Nations of Space Command, and a Spartan. If anything, she will be under my supervision."

"So, you agree?" Raiko asked.

"I don't know if you noticed, but there are defectors among Kuvira's ranks. Rogue Spartans that have cut ties with the UNSC, they've gone AWOL. We've tried in getting them to return to no avail." Lasky responded, "I believe that to maintain colonial stability, Kuvira must be removed from power before she decides in doing something drastic. But she is protected, and the only one that can effectively defeat her is Korra and her team."

"It is the Avatar's role in restoring balance to the world." The Fire Lady added. Tonraq sighed, he never through that it would come to this.

"Then its decided. Avatar Korra will bring Kuvira to answer for her defiance in restoring the order of the Earth Kingdom." He officially stated.

* * *

 **Ba Sing Se, Earth Empire**

 **Noon**

The Earth Palace was silent, guards stood quietly as screams of anger roared through the halls, sweat dropping from their faces. Within the operations room, Kuvira had been throwing chairs into the wall in an act of fury. "Kuvira, stop." Donar said entering the room, trying to calm her down.

"No one defies me, no one!" Kuvira yelled, "I have no dedicated half a decade into bringing this cesspool of a country into order to be looked down upon by a stupid girl who believes herself to be a true soldier!"

"The other heads of government know that you are not fooling around, Kuvira. They know that your words are backed up by not only an army, but by an idea." Donar said, "They will come to fear us in time."

"They won't, not as long as they have the Avatar on their side." Kuvira responded, "The Avatar is a sign of unity, of hope. They will most certainly send her to stop me."

"What do you wish to do?"

"Act first." Kuvira said, "Hit them before they hit us. There was a single province in the Empire that has defied our attempts…Zaofu. I will take the city and boost our own forces."

"Zaofu? But Su…"

"Su is out of the loop, her ideas outdated, unnecessary. If we want the Earth Empire to be respected and feared, then we will need to be united. And besides…." She walked towards another room, it was large with a missing roof. There were several Hornets, Warthogs, and other UNSC supplies stored here. "The Red Lotus did after all bless us with this equipment."

"We will not fail." Donar said putting his helmet on. "Fireteam Horus is at your command."


	6. The Fallen

**Air Temple Island**

 **Republic City**

 **October 24** **th** **[Earth Calendar]**

 **Night**

Air Temple Island, a monument to the greatness and wisdom of the past, and the light of hope for the future. After the opening of the portals during the Harmonic Convergence, new airbenders began migrating to the island hoping to better harness their newfound gift. Master Tenzin, the once last master airbender, had been busy training this brand-new generation, the dream of Avatar Aang realized. It was dinner time, and most of the airbenders ate with the acolytes in their dormitories while Tenzin's family had dinner in their own building in the middle of the island.

"Its good to finally have you join us for dinner, Captain Lasky." Pema said as she placed a full plate of airbender food in front of Lasky. It was vegetarian grub, the airbenders believed that all life was precious, so no meat.

"Thank you, ma'am. Its been a long time coming." Lasky said, putting on a cloth napkin on his neck. Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo watched him do so, they snickered. "Oh?"

"You have weird customs." Ikki quickly said.

"Ikki!" Tenzin shouted, "Captain Lasky is our guest tonight, be respectful."

"It's all right, Tenzin. Manners in the military is very…stern, and I've come to be used to it." Lasky said taking a bite of one of baked potatoes. "Mmmm."

Korra walked in the dining area, she was in her UNSC uniform again, "Sorry for being late, I forgot that there aren't any washing machines here. Had to wash my uniform by hand." She said while standing in front of the table, saluting.

"At ease, Korra." Lasky said smiling, "This is your home, I should be saluting to you."

Korra took a seat next to Lasky, "I'm surprised that the Commander isn't here with you, sir." She said while looking at the plate of food in front of her with hungry eyes.

"Sarah was busy whipping new recruits into shape aboard the Infinity." Lasky replied, "So, how you've been enjoying your time back home?"

Korra had already stuffed her mouth with vegetables and bread, she swallowed. "Ah. Well, I really wasn't planning to pull that stun yesterday. I might've overshot my welcome."

"What you did was uncalled for, Korra, but it might've been the correct move." Tenzin said.

"What do you mean?" Korra asked.

"Today's paper." Lasky took out a roll of newspaper and gave it to Korra, "The public is on your favor, they've rallied with the Avatar's words. According to Tenzin, there hasn't been so much social buzz ever since you first arrived to Republic City."

"Yeah…déjà vu." Korra said reading the frontpage of the newspaper. "But I don't know what to do, I challenged Kuvira, that might've sparked a conflict. And I don't want to be in the center of it, I'm a ONI agent, Captain. This is specifically the opposite of what I'm supposed to do."

"And what are you supposed to do, Korra?" Jinora asked who had an open ear to the conversation.

"Its…classified." Korra replied, "Its sneaky stuff, and being the Avatar goes against the job description."

Tenzin sighed after taking a drink of his fruit juice drink, "Unfortunately, Korra, you are the Avatar. You are connected to this world and its people, more than you know. Remember the Tree of Time? How you were able to connect to it?"

"I indistinctly remember it being a Forerunner construct hiding a giant robot." Korra responded in a cynical tone. "And its not like it matter anymore, I lost my connection with Raava and most of my powers. I'm no one's Avatar."

Lasky had already finished enjoying his meal, "Even so…" He cleaned his lips with the cloth napkin. "Kuvira represents a significant breach in colonial stability and security. She is an insurrectionist now, and the Earth Empire, a rogue nation. Colonial Affairs is going to be on my neck by tomorrow once word reaches back to HIGHCOM. She needs to be stopped, Avatar or no Avatar."

"But Captain…"

"I've spoken with the Security Council this morning, I requested that your team be placed under my operational authority for now, at least until the threat of Kuvira is ended." Lasky said, "I know that you don't want to start something now, especially during shore leave, but I need to be sure if you are up to doing this Korra."

"I've always taught you that being the Avatar requires service and sacrifice, being there for the people, and for the world. Even if you don't feel like the Avatar, Korra, it is your birthright." Tenzin added, "And the world…needs you."

Korra looked at her unfinished food, she placed her hands on her lap. "I'll…call my team. See if they're close by."

"Thank you, Korra." Lasky said, "Meet Commander Palmer and I tomorrow at 0800 to talk about our current situation." He stood from his seat, "I appreciate the invitation, Master Tenzin. Pema, kids."

He walked towards the front door, exiting the building. Korra placed her hands over her face, "Korra, are you alright?" Pema asked. She stood up and sat next to her putting her hand on Korra's shoulder.

"I just wanted to rest." Korra said, "To gather my thoughts…"

"I am sorry, Korra. This is a surprise for all of us, but I'm sure that we can fix this, we've done it multiple times before. We just have to have hope." Tenzin said.

"Yeah…hope." Korra repeated.

A couple of minutes later she had left the family by themselves, walking back to her room. She unlocked the wooden door and entered, she placed the key on the night desk next to her bed. Korra sat on the neatly made bed, undoing the buttons on her dress uniform shirt, taking it off. Her white undershirt had a grey printed Spartan Eagle in the front, she fell back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. The warm light of the candle on the table in the other side of the room created shadows on the ceiling. "Problems?" A familiar voice came from the opened window.

"Asami!"

"Korra!" The two hugged, "It's been so long. How've you been?"

The two sat on the bed, "Well…stuff." Korra didn't know what to say, this was all sudden. "How…we're on the second floor."

"I wanted to give you a surprise, took me a while to climb up." Asami joked. "Speaking of surprises, look at you, you look so much different…hotter! Also, that radio broadcast, I bet Kuvira is shaking in her boots right now."

"According to the news, it's a start. While I was…out there, I was changed. I'm a Spartan now." Korra said, "I mean, I'm not complaining."

"Last time I saw you…you were in a really bad shape. I thought I lost you…we thought that you were gone." Asami said remembering that fateful day.

"You saw me? But I was on the Halo."

"You were brought back here, emergency treatment back at the camp, but it wasn't working. You were clinically dead, Korra. I…it was rough, whatever the space doctors did, I am extremely thankful they were able to bring you back." Asami said with a blush coming on her cheeks.

"They weren't able to bring all of me back…" Korra looked at her legs.

"Oh…you don't mean."

"And now I might've started an international conflict, and I've been ordered by Lasky to spearhead an assault to dethrone Kuvira." Korra said, "I'm no stranger to wetwork…been doing it for the past four years now."

"You going out into the field again?"

"It seems like it." Korra sighed.

"Hmm…" Asami thought, "Even if you call your team, its gonna take a while for superluminal messages to reach their destination in time for tomorrow."

"Superwhat now?"

"How about we bring the old crew back together?!" Asami was ecstatic with the idea, "And before you ask, I'm president and CEO of Future Industries, who has not only grown to be world's number one technology innovator and distributor, but also celebrated in having the best managerial team ever as well. The board can handle a couple of days of business without me to hold their hands."

"Okaayy…what about Bolin? Isn't he like some big celebrity now?" Korra asked.

"Bo is in the city, taking a break in-between projects, oh and before you say, 'but he has no military or scientific experience', Bo was part of Kuvira's forces for about a year." Asami revealed.

"Whaaa?"

"Not even kidding! He got out before it got dirty when he found out something big, he told me about it. Apparently Kuvira had been forcing province governors across the Earth Kingdom into joining her cause, in the not good kind of diplomatic talk." Asami whispered, "Only the top brass of the United Forces and the UNSC know about this, they were keeping it hush hush since they were still with the idea that Kuvira would pass the power to Prince Wu."

"That's kinda shady." Korra said, "You know what, I can let the rest of my team rest, and this isn't something out of the ordinary for us."

"Yes! I can get in contact with Mako, see if can slither away from his 'royal guard' gig for at least a day or two." Asami happily said taking out a phone out of her pocket.

"Woah, you have those here now?"

"You bet, several companies bringing these miracles of technology built several towers throughout all the nations except the Earth Kingdom because you know…civil war." Asami began ringing Mako's number, "Dude doesn't use his mobile much, but he always answers my calls."

Korra smiled as Asami began talking to Mako over the phone, she was in full on joy while talking to him about the next mission they were planning in doing. Korra laid back on the bed and smirked, this might be not so bad after all.

"Alright he is in!" Asami said.

"Well then…let's get started." Korra replied.

* * *

 **UNSC Infinity**

 **Requiem's Orbit**

 **October 25** **th** **[Earth Calendar]**

 **8:30 AM**

Korra marched through the wide metal halls of the Infinity, passing by several marines and naval personnel as she made her way to the bridge. She had spent most of the night talking with Asami about her life and the happenings around town. Gossiping. Somethings never change. Either way, she had armored up before taking the first Pelican to the Infinity. Her armor had been polished and repaired, the black armor shone, and the blue visor was like a blue mirror reflecting everything in front of it. The engineers back planetside did know how to maintain the complexities that came with MJOLNIR Power Armors.

"Hey Korra, wait up!" Korra stooped and turned to see who was calling to her, it was one of the marines in Sergeant Olivares's unit, Corporal Robert Agnarsson. "I mean…uh…Commander!"

She took off her helmet to speak properly with the young leatherneck. "Yeah?" She asked as the marine saluted. "At ease."

"Commander Palmer asked the Sarge to give you this, it's an armor enhancement, it allows your armor to cloak." He gave her a small capsule looking device. "Fits on the back of the helmet. Sarge couldn't give you the device himself so he asked me to do it…he is currently planetside visiting a loved one."

"Oh, cool." Korra looked at the device, it was UNSC patented all right, strange looking. Most likely a reversed engineered Covenant active camouflage system used by the Covenant assassins or Special Operations Elites. "I'll thank Palmer once I meet her at the bridge. And thank you Robert, for giving me this."

"No problem ma'am! And call me Bob." The marine said, smirking.

"I'll keep that in mind, Bob." Korra said as she turned away towards the bridge leaving the marine. A sailor walked up to Bob and looked at him, the marine was wearing his helmet and the gold visor covered his eyes but not his lower face.

"Dude, you're drooling." The sailor said.

"Shut up!"

In the bridge, Korra stepped forward and saluted, Captain Lasky and Commander Palmer were looking at the topographical map of the Earth Kingdom, it was holographic and showed every single province of the nation. "Sir!" Korra made her presence known.

"Oh Korra, you're here. At ease." Lasky said, "Look at what we have."

She walked towards the projection table and looked at the map, "This are the provinces that Kuvira has taken control of. Most of them… it seems. The provinces nearest to the United Republic haven't been touched though."

"These are the provinces where the UNSC has established forward operation complexes at; barracks, vehicle depots, control and command posts, heck even some airship stations for Sparrowhawk fighters. Kuvira isn't risking entering these provinces, even if she can metalbend them out of the sky there'd be too many for her troops to handle. Not to mention a quick and decisive attack at them." Lasky explained.

"Speaking of which, if we have the numbers to completely kick Kuvira's face into next week, why haven't we invaded Ba Sing Se yet?" Korra asked.

"Same reason the other nations haven't done so already. Nobody wants to risk a full-fledged war, especially one that immediately follows the Hundred Year War, the Didact's Invasion, and the thing that almost infected the entire city. Also, the scare that Zaheer gave us when he summoned the Halo into Requiem's orbit." Palmer replied. "If we want Kuvira out, we're gonna have to do it the cloak and dagger way."

"Korra, I've already received word from HIGHCOM back on Earth, more colonists are coming, and well, they want Kuvira out permanently." Lasky pressed a button on the holodesk and replaced the Earth Kingdom map with a playback of Korra's declaration. "And this has…made a considerable setback."

"Yeah…I'm sorry."

"Kuvira knows that she has a target painted on her back…and of all people, the Avatar has stated in press conference that has been broadcasted across the country and possibly now through the planet that she is going to take her out." Palmer said, "We have to act, sooner than later, before she concentrates all of her forces on the borders of the United Republic."

"What would you have me do?" Korra asked.

"Here are your orders, infiltrate behind enemy lines, find out what Kuvira has planned, figure out where she currently is, and make sure she isn't a problem anymore." Palmer gave her an entire file with recon pictures and the information she'll need to get the job done. "Also, we don't tolerate traitors…eliminate Fireteam Horus too."

"Palmer will be your Control for this operation, she'll remain in the Infinity's Command Information Center. I'll be connected too, but I must monitor Blue Team's mission as well in the meantime. Is your team ready?" Lasky asked.

Korra smirked, "Yeah, they are."

She was about to leave the bridge, but she remembered something, "Oh by the way Sarah…thanks for the upgrade."

Palmer smiled, "Use it well, Spartan."

Korra nodded while putting on her helmet and putting the device into one of the helmet's inputs. She left the bridge as her energy shields flickered and her entire being turned invisible, scaring several naval personnel who saw her banish into the air.

* * *

 **Zaofu**

 **The Earth Empire**

 **October 25** **th**

 **3:44 PM**

It was a quiet afternoon in Zaofu, but the silence and clear sky didn't reflect the amount of stress that Zaofu's governor, Suyin Beifong, was going through. She was getting calls from the other regional governors, many of them having surrendered to Kuvira's proposals, while others getting brutally impeached by the self-proclaimed Empress. "Yao, try to relax, breathe in through the nose, and breathe out through the mouth. Relax. I heard what you said, and I don't fault you for what you did. You were thinking about your citizens, and that's what matters." She was speaking through the phone, she was fidgeting with a pen on her free hand as she listened to what her fellow governor said. "And you already spoke with the others about it and they confirmed it? All right, yes, I will. You have my word."

She hung up. She sighed as she placed her hands on her face, things were getting out of control. Her husband, Baatar, stepped into her office and tried to console his wife. He kissed the top of her head, "You're doing a fine job, honey."

"Its just that…how could I've allowed this? She was my own protégé!" She blamed herself for Kuvira's rise. "I should've seen the signs. And now it seems that things will be coming full circle."

"Full circle? What do you mean?" Bataar asked.

"Kuvira…she's coming." Su replied. "With a good portion of her army." And as if fate had been weaving the present events themselves, a guard came running into the office.

"Ma'am! Kuvira, she is here!" The guard yelled.

"What?!"

Outside, on a balcony overlooking the area outside the metal city's gates, Su, Baatar, and several Guards, stood looking at the near horizon. A massive army of metalbenders, power armored soldiers, and tanks marched towards them, flanked by airships. "This isn't just a portion of her forces…this is an entire legion!" Baatar said.

"Send word to the United Forces and the UNSC immediately." Su told her husband who ran immediately to do so. "We're gonna need all the help we can get."

In front of the massive wall of soldiers, Kuvira stood on top of a stolen and repurposed M313 Heavy Recovery Vehicle aka Elephant. "Behold, the last piece of the puzzle." Kuvira said as Zaofu was in her direct crosshairs. "Are the engineers ready?"

"The power armors have the plasma cutters installed." Donar said.

"Good. Advance until we're closer to the gates, Suyin will either surrender or fight, and I sincerely hope she surrenders." Kuvira said as the Elephant moved towards the metal jewel of her new kingdom.

* * *

 **Argent Moon**

Master Chief and Blue Team fought through waves of Covenant troops, the Storm Covenant had been sent to get something, something very important for Jul. Fred hid behind a column while an Elite fired his Plasma Repeater at him. Linda took the Elite with a single sniper shot to the head, giving Fred enough time to throw a frag grenade at the Grunts that were backing the now dead Elite, blowing them up into pieces.

Master Chief and Kelly ran towards the door they were protecting, to be met by a Zealot. The Elite roared at them, wielding out his energy sword, but this one was different from the other Elites. The other Sangheili looked to be big hulking beasts, like Brutes, but this one reminded the Master Chief of the ones he had fought during the war. Sleek and fierce. "Kelly look out!" He pushed his teammate out of the way as the Zealot had quickly moved towards them, almost catching Kelly with his sword. Chief fired his Assault Rifle at the Elite, his energy shields lit up but to no avail for the Spartan as the Zealot kept swinging the sword, breaking the distance between the Chief and the tip of the sword with each swing.

Fred and Linda joined them, Fred noticed the Chief having trouble with this Zealot. He ran quickly towards them, and he tackled the Zealot into the metal floor. THUD! The Elite tried to throw the Spartan off, but Fred kept using Judo moves to keep the Elite pinned in the ground. Chief pulled the Elite up and threw him into the metal wall, making a literal hole through the thick metal wall. The Elite landed on the other side, a computer room filled with Grunts. The Grunts jumped with surprise and ran out of the room in fear. The Zealot stood back up, igniting his sword once again, but a sniper shot ripped through his energy shields, hitting the Elite in the leg.

The Elite took cover behind several cubicles, trading his sword with his plasma rifle. The Elite yelled at the Spartans, "Cowards! All of you, humans, are cowards! Fighting from afar instead of facing your opponent!" The Elite screamed.

Then the Zealot felt something standing in front of him, "Cowards huh?" Kelly stood on top of the Elite with her shotgun aimed directly at its head. "Checkmate." BANG! She fired the weapon, turning the alien's head into a bloody stain of brain matter and bones on the metal floor.

The others joined her, "We should be close to the service elevator, from there we can find the damned control room of this place." Linda said reloading her sniper rifle, the Nornfang. Chief scanned the area, all the Covenant Storm forces here were dealt with. "Why would the Covenant come here?"

"This isn't the real Covenant, Linda. What Jul made is a shadow of the Covenant, under armed, using decommissioned cruisers, obsolete armors, weapons, and equipment. They act more like space pirates than anything else, if the reports from the outer rim worlds are of any truth." Fred replied, "They are most likely looking for something that ONI was hiding here. Possibly that bioweapon that the AI was talking about in the recording?"

"They would know what it is." Chief said, "Using it would backfire on them, massively."

"Desperation causes people to act insane, and the Arbiter has been beating Jul's Covenant." Kelly added, "These are religious fanatics we're talking about, they'd do anything to win for their gods."

"Then whatever they're looking for her has to be kept away from them." Linda said.

"Affirmative. Initiate Protocol 7343-2, complete package denial to the enemy. Let's find the control room and begin the self-destruction sequence of this station. That should take care of the Covenant, the package, and the gas." Chief ordered.

* * *

 **Requiem**

 **Camp Preston Cole**

 **4:30 PM**

 **October 25** **th**

Asami, Mako, and Bolin waited for Korra inside an armory, while Mako geared up in his ODST BDU, everyone inside the armory made glances at Asami and Bolin. They were civilians, after all, so the mere sight of them was out of place and not standard. "Say, bro, what should I wear?" Bolin asked.

"Uh, well, grab one of the extra Marine battle armors over there by the crate. The armorer will be pissed off, but he won't make a fuzz when I talk to him about it." Mako said, "Try out, should be a one size fits all."

Bolin placed the breast armor on, it was comfortable, fit him like a glove. As Bolin armored up, Asami approached Mako. "Hey, so not to make this weird but are you sure that your superiors will be okay with this? You know with leaving the prince unsupervised?" She asked.

"I left my right-hand man with him, Asami. There's nothing to worry, and besides we'll be sanctioned by a Spartan to do a blacklisted mission into enemy territory that might or might not be in complete chaos now. I don't think that the Sergeant Major will have much of anything to say." Mako told her, he placed his M6C/SOCOM Magnum on his hip and placed his silenced SMG on the other side. Mako looked robust inside his ODST BDU, only thing that was left was putting on the helmet.

Asami had some light armor on, used mostly by the science personnel when they went into missions with Marine personnel into areas in conflict. Asami wielded a TACPAD on her left wrist and a UGPS device on her right wrist. She would be using M6D Magnum as her side arm.

Bolin, now completely armored up in Marine M52B BDU, had a BR55 HB on his back, and a MA5D Assault Rifle on his hands. "Ready to kick some ass!" He exclaimed.

"Now don't get too excited, Bo. Remember that you still have your bending to use, so leave one rifle behind. This is going to be a hush hush mission." Mako said, Bolin was a bit saddened by that and placed his Assault Rifle on one of the metal cabinets with the other weapons.

Korra entered the armory, joining her friends. "Everyone ready?" She asked, they all nodded in agreement. "Nice, all right follow me to the Pelicans. If anyone asks, you're with me."

They walked towards the hangars, there they would meet their pilot. "So who's taking us to the drop zone?" Mako asked.

"One of my teammates, unlike the others he stuck around. Told him to, he is my shadow after all." Korra said as they entered the hangar meeting the individual. "Spartan Gabriel Thorne."

"Commander." He saluted, Korra saluted back.

"Well look who it is. Nice seeing you again." Mako shook hands with Thorne. "Haven't seen you in forever."

"Yeah, it's been a long time, I agree. And look at you, man, the leader of your own squad of ODSTs." Thorne congratulated the progress Mako had made in the UNSCMC.

"Its been tough, but having the power to literally throw fire and lightning out of your hands and feet really helped…a lot." Mako joked, "You know where we're going right?"

"Yeup, have it all in here." Thorne pointed at his helmet protected head, "But as a special bonus…we're going to be monitored."

"Monitored?" Korra asked.

"The Captain just told me, surprised he didn't tell you, Commander. Its an ONI AI, called Leonidas." Thorne extended his left hand and a small blue projection of an ancient Spartan warrior appeared.

"Whoa." Asami was amazed at this, Bolin was clearly surprised. But Mako was more annoyed than anything, the spooks were keeping a watchful eye on them. Figures.

"Greetings, Spartan Korra. I am AI LN 0480-1 also known as 'Leonidas' as Spartan Thorne stated. I'll be assisting you in this mission." The smart AI said. "The Admiral will want to know everything about this mission, you are going in with a completely different team after all."

"Yeah…" Korra said, "Alright, hop in." The AI transmitted itself from Thorne's armor and into Korra's. "Don't get any funny ideas in there."

"No need to worry, Spartan. I'll be here to help." Leonidas replied.

Korra sighed, "Okay then, let's get aboard the pelican and get this mission rolling."

The pelican's engines roared, and the aircraft began to ascend out of the hangar, this would be the first mission of Team Avatar in many years. That meant that it was time to get properly reacquainted.

"We're gonna be fighting really tough bad guys down there, so…Bolin tell us everything you know about them." Korra said. "Also by the way, great movers."

"Thanks! Varrick was planning to make a film about my life's work, it was going to be great! But Kuvira took him, haven't seen him since the last film's premiere. That was over a year ago." Bolin said.

"Varrick's missing? Hm, and over a year ago." Mako thought, "Kuvira's power armors began to be used almost a year ago…yeah, that makes sense."

"You think that Varrick is being forced to boost Kuvira's ground forces?" Asami asked.

"Not only his ground forces, but her entire force." Mako explained, "He is the only one crazy and capable enough to think of anything like that."

"Dates do match up." Leonidas stated, "Varrick was confirmed missing on April 3rd two years ago."

"What else can we expect from Kuvira's forces?" Korra asked the AI.

"An entire fireteam of Spartan-IVs, 500 Powered Armored units, 10,000 infantry personnel in total with over half of them being benders and 350 aircraft, a third of them being war zeppelins and the others being gunships." Leonidas informed, "But this data is four months old, it is possible that she might've grown in force in the meantime."

"Yeah, she has accelerated her warmongering recently. I would say that her infantry force is much larger now thanks to the drafted men from the conquered provinces." Mako added, "In any case, what was her past position?"

"In the city of Shi Long, the capital of the Puang province close to Omashu. That was over a month ago, drones looking for her current position were taken down, most likely by metalbender sentries." Leonidas answered.

"Looking for her would be like finding a needle through a haystack, especially if we're going to her last location." Asami said, "There must be a way to find her faster."

"Uhhh, incoming distress signal." Thorne said as he piloted the pelican.

"Patch it through." Korra ordered. Static came through the pelican's inner speakers, then a frantic voice called for help.

"This is Zaofu, please someone respond! We're in grave danger!"

"That's the voice of Baatar, Su's husband!" Mako said.

"Kuvira is attacking us, please send reinforcements! We're not going to be able to hold her for long!" The signal was then interrupted by more static.

"Their radio tower must've been destroyed." Korra told them, "Okay then, change of plans. Thorne turn this bird towards Zaofu, we need to get there ASAP."

"It's going to take us two hours to get there." Thorne informed her. "At top speed I may add."

"Just get us there."

"I will relay that message back to control." Leonidas said.

"Okay, okay, we go there and do what exactly?" Mako asked, "We're five people against an entire army."

Korra looked at her friends, they all had reunited in a moment's notice. The primary mission objective was to take Kuvira down at all costs. Everything else was secondary.

"I have a plan, but we'll have to get there first." Korra said, "Hey Thorne, cannonball entrance."

"What?! Are you sure?"

"Sure, I'm sure! Just give me the greenlight once we're on top of them."

"Korra what are you going to do?!" Asami asked worryingly.

"Spartan Korra, that is highly hazardous." Leonidas stated, "But it's a direct takedown move towards our opponent. I like it."

Korra smirked, "We'll see how Kuvira likes a platinum-coated titanium fist going right into her throat."

* * *

 **Zaofu**

 **Earth Empire**

 **October 25** **th** **[Earth Calendar]**

 **6:10 PM**

War! The outer defenses of the city of Zaofu had been breached, the Guards were doing everything they could to seal entrances, but their efforts were being thwarted by the Powered Suits Tanks rolling through the metal gates. Empire Soldiers stormed the hastily built bunkers defending the inner wall that led into the city proper. Civilians who knew how to earthbend and metalbend joined the Guards as a militia to boost their forces, 30 Guards and 50 armed civilians stood in front of the final gate, this would lead Kuvira's forces into the city.

"Stand firm, men!" The current Captain of the Guard exclaimed. "If we fall then we will fall standing!"

KROOOOM! The sounds of the fighting outside the final gate could be heard, screams and explosions…the sounds of twisting metal and iron ripping into flesh. Some of the civilians were having second thoughts. "No retreat, no surrender!" The Captain of the Guard yelled.

Then suddenly, the fighting outside stopped. "Huh?" One of the Guards said, sudden silence confused him, it was frightening.

"What the hell is going outside?" The Captain asked. One of the Sentries ran towards the last remaining tower overlooking the outer walls.

"It's the goddamned UNSC!"

Outside, above Kuvira's Elephant hovered a Pelican…the self-appointed Empress had ordered a cease fire. The Pelican's hatch opened, out of it jumped a single figure smashing into the rocky ground creating a small crater. The Pelican flew off. The lone figure stood up having landed on a single knee with its shields flickering a bit.

"The United Nations Space Command has finally sent an attack dog to try to stop my liberation of the Earth Kingdom…Empire, I mean. Takes a while to get used to. Anyway, state your name before my men here take you prisoner, Spartan." Kuvira told the lone figure standing in front of her Elephant.

"I am Avatar Korra!" Korra yelled out, sending a chill through the spine of the men and women standing around Kuvira. Donar grunted in surprise, this was not expected at all. "And I'm here to put an end to your unnecessary violence, Kuvira!"

Kuvira was impressed by this, the Avatar had come personally to stop her. In other cases, she would feel honored, but something felt off about her. She couldn't put her finger on it, but nevertheless she was intrigued. Kuvira turned around and climbed down the Elephant, Donar following her.

Kuvira walked towards the Avatar, out of curiosity than anything. She stopped, they faced each other but Kuvira couldn't see Korra's eyes…only a serene blue glowing visor. "I'm afraid that you won't be getting any close to the Great Uniter, Avatar." Donar said, "A foot closer and I'll personally rip your spine out of your back."

"Oh, I haven't forgotten about you, traitor. If you want to fight, then come at me then. I'm fond of appetizers." Korra taunted the fallen Spartan, Donar snarled in anger.

"Calm down, dear. She's just riling you up, and you're falling for it." Kuvira told the Spartan, "The person she actually wants is me."

"I could always skip to the main course." Korra responded in a cocky manner.

"Hm, something's different about you. Last time I saw you, conscious, you were humble and dedicated. Now you're…reckless, indoctrinated, and bloodthirsty." Kuvira examined her, she noted the change in personality. "Something happened aboard the ring, yes…and even more occurred under the care of the naval agency Earth's government is so fond of."

"People change, Kuvira. If you don't want me to end your tour through the Earth Kingdom with a concentrated super human punch into your adrenal glands, then I suggest surrendering." Korra responded, "Tell your forces to retreat, to return to Ba Sing Se, perhaps that way my friends will be a lot more forgiving in handling out punishments for high treason to not only the peoples of the world and the goodwill of the UNSC ambassadors, but to the years Suyin invested into your sorry excuse for a leader."

Kuvira sighed, "Order cannot be halted unless you want chaos to roam free, again. If you stand in between me and absolute order, then I'll just have to move you out of the way…by force." Kuvira took her battle stance.

Korra did so as well, deciding not to use her weapons since Kuvira could easily bend the bullets away. Korra went in the offensive, moving at top speeds, but Kuvira had been training with Donar expecting to face Spartans in the future. Instead of trying to fight her on similar grounds…Kuvira bended the ground. The rocky ground was pushed up as Korra ran over it, flipping the Avatar and be crushed by the rather big boulder.

Korra used her earthbending to punch her way out of the rock, she airbended wind attacks at Kuvira. They made contact, surprising the Great Uniter. Kuvira was thrown into Donar's arms.

"Kuvira!" He yelled.

"Grr!" She grunted, going back into the duel. Bending rocks into the air and jumping into each rock to close the distance between herself and the Avatar. Korra noticed and pushed the rocks off, but Kuvira used her metal gloves to punch Korra's face. The metal gloves were metalbended to be become denser around the knuckles and being strong enough to do some damage to the armor's energy shields.

Korra counter-attacked with firebending, the flames reaching Kuvira, her clothing caught fire. She screamed in desperation as she used the earth dust to snuff them out, but she had been distracted, Korra grabbed her by the head and threw her into the boulder. "Ah!" Pain, much pain, running through Kuvira's body. Korra took her helmet off, letting it fall to her side.

The Avatar State tried to start, her eyes momentarily glowing erratically. "You may have brought order into a chaotic nation, Kuvira, but in your path in bringing absolute order you only brought discord into the world. And now you must pay the ultimate price." Korra's voice was that of many, she raised her arm to deliver the final blow…Kuvira's expression changed to that one of fear. Korra brought her arm down…

A high-caliber bullet struck the rock, the pebbles fell on Kuvira's messy hair, and blood was sprayed on her surprised face. Korra exited out of the Avatar State, her eyes looking down into her torso. There was hole in her armor…in her torso…a sniper rifle shot. Behind Donar stood Spartan Wulf, one of the traitorous Spartans of Fireteam Horus. "Bang." He said.

Kuvira took advantage of this, she grabbed one of Korra's legs and metal bended the insides beneath the platinum-coater armor, the bionics, and ripped them out making Korra fall on her back. "Ahhugh…" Korra was losing consciousness, her vision blurring.

"Soldiers! Keep on with the siege." Kuvira ordered, standing up with a broken left arm. "Sorry Korra, but this is the way things must be."

Donar walked towards them, "What do you want to do?" He asked.

"Kill her. We're going through with the plans." Kuvira ordered.

"Understood." Donar said, he aimed his pistol at Korra's head. But he was stopped when the Pelican returned, having bombarded one of the war zeppelins scattering several of the infantrymen and making Donar and Wulf take cover. Thorne, strapped to the Pelican, jumped out and grabbed Korra, he was pulled back up into the dropship. As quickly as it came, the Pelican left as fast it could.

"Korra!" Mako and Asami quickly ran towards Korra's unconscious body. "No no no no not again!" Mako was desperate, it was happening all over again. "Thorne, do something!"

"The bullet just went through it, luckily it missed her heart by 3 inches, still she's losing blood. Bolin, pass me some of that biofoam dispenser inside the medkit next to the cockpit's door." He ordered.

"Here!" He tossed the dispenser towards Thorne, he caught it. Thorne quickly injected Korra's wound with the foam, the biofoam would act as a biological stitching tool. The wound would be close long enough for proper medical treatment.

"Her body should heal, but her body went into a shock…" Thorne said, sighing in relief. "She is out for the count."

"But…but...!" Asami didn't know what to say. "Oh no…this is our fault…we didn't follow protocol…ah!"

"Asami, no, please calm down! It was her idea, don't beat yourself up!" Bolin replied.

"I was supposed to watch her back…" Mako said, his anger towards Kuvira rose much more, and to her Spartan dogs. But then, the Pelican's warning signals flared up. "What the?!"

Thorne ran back to the pilot seat, "Oh no, we're being followed!"

"By what?!" Bolin asked.

"…Fighter jets!"

Several Earth Empire jets were on their trail, they began shooting at the Pelican with several missile barrages, the Pelican dodge several of them. But the missiles that exploded around them messed with the dropship's energy shielding. The fighter used their machine gun turrets, one of them got lucky and struck the Pelican's left-wing engine.

The engine exploded! "We're going down, everyone grab a hold of something!" Thorne yelled, Asami and Bolin grabbed into the seats as quickly as they could, but Mako pulled Korra into one of the seats and placed the security harness on her.

"Mako!" Asami screamed, Mako took hold of one of the seats as the Pelican crash landed. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

* * *

 **Zaofu**

 **An hour after…**

Kuvira stood in the city's center, her left arm in a sling. Her soldiers raided the town hall, taking prisoner Baatar and his sons, "Kuvira, we have taken the Guards prisoner and stated a curfew on the citizens." Donar reported.

"Suyin?" She asked.

"Nothing yet."

"Hmph. Where are you Su…" She wondered, "Proceed with the plan, dismantle the city's metal ceiling."

"Of course. Also, we found the Avatar's crashed Pelican, no bodies." Donar said, he left to dismantle the steel protective arms of the city.

Kuvira watched him as he walked away, she looked at her broken arm and shifted her gaze upon her soldiers taking some of the more unrelenting Guards…and executing them in front of the forced gathered citizens. Her tired eyes showed no sense of regret or disgust from the act, just apathy.

"Nothing but absolute order." She said.

* * *

 **Argent Moon**

Chief and Blue Team entered the control room, it was empty. Just skeletons in lab coats scattered on the metal floor. They looked for the self-destruct sequence activator, then Kelly found something. "Hey, look at this, a recording from the laboratory."

"Hm, what are they using?" Fred asked. The scientists inside the lab in the recording were fiddling with a Forerunner device. It looked like a coffin, with orange highlights going around it. One of the scientists activated it by placing his hand over the mid-section of the coffin, the science team stepped away and the security guards took over aiming their assault rifles at it.

A metal hand formed out of the coffin, the guards fired but the bullets did nothing to the coffin. A gigantic Promethean-like being teleported in front of the guards, the being sliced them all in half. In the panic, the being destroyed the lab releasing the gas.

"Was that a Knight?" Linda asked.

"No…its something else." Chief replied, but as they watched the recording the monitors in room began to flicker in orange static. The symbol of the Forerunner Ecumene appeared in them, the systems had been taken over.

" _Humans. It seems that you have discovered my tomb._ "

"What the?!" Fred aimed his Battle Rifle towards one of the monitors. "Where is it coming from?!"

" _You have defied us and our will long enough, and now that this body has been awakened a signal has been sent to the others throughout the galaxy thanks to the Domain reborn._ "

The exit out of the control room closed, "We're trapped in here!" Kelly stated.

" _Trying to tame our technology, trying to use the great enemy as a weapon…like children playing with fire. My creators were wrong, you have not changed, you WILL never change. So, I have made it my mission in upholding the Mantle of Responsibility._ "

The station began to shake, several of the monitors exploded except one.

" _As Keeper of the Domain, I swear to avenge the Didact and the Forerunner…by destroying this station, and your world next._ "


	7. Salt On A Wound

**Somewhere in the Earth Empire**

 **7:30 PM**

The pelican stood motionless beneath the sands, the crashed aircraft overlooking a small abandoned town. Most of the buildings were buried over sand mounds, the cold winds of the desert whistling through the empty sand ridden wooden rooms. But there was a small building with a light in it, shining in the dark. The small fire giving a warm, orange light.

Korra lied on the ground, unconscious, but breathing in a steady rhythm. Her wound was severe, her armor had taken most of the impact, but the high caliber bullet came from an SRS99-S5 AM Sniper Rifle designed to shred and rip through tank armor. Biofoam had been injected in the wound, stopping the bleeding, momentarily. But the bullet had puncture her centimeters below the heart, missing it, but making enough damage to throw her into unconsciousness.

"I've communicated with command, they said that the mission was still a priority. We have no back-up, we've been black inked." Thorne said, he rested his armored back on the wood wall.

"Just great, amazing!" Bolin said, "We were barely able to hide from her jets after we crashed."

"Calm down, Bolin, we don't need you making a ruckus and getting those guys looking for us here." Mako barked at his younger brother, shutting him up. Bolin sat as well, angry because of the heavy feeling of powerlessness. Asami was kneeling next to Korra's unmoving body, looking at her closed eyes. She looked at the bullet hole in the armor, biofoam had filled it, but then she noticed something.  
"Thorne, the bullet…didn't go through her, did it?" Asami asked catching Spartan Thorne's attention. Asami moved Korra over revealing her back.

"It did but…I didn't notice this before… The bullet was a 14.5×114mm M232 round, capable of cutting though Scorpion armor like a hot knife through butter." Thorne was in disbelief, Asami moved Korra back, "But the exit wound is not as severe as it should be, now that I think about it. She should be dead." The armor had been compromised, the bullet left heavy damage in the outer shell, inner body suit, and several padded layers. But it was completely inert.

"What makes you say that?" Mako asked.

"MJOLNIR armors have the ability of entering lock mode, either by heavy trauma or to resist high velocity impacts." Thorne explained, "But normally, from what we've seen in the War Games scenarios, anti-armor bullets tend to turn MJOLNIR into swiss cheese."

"Maybe her armor is different." Bolin theorized.

"…Maybe." Thorne rubbed his chin as he looked over the Aegis armor that Korra wore. "Perhaps, it's the armor lock that's keeping her alive."

* * *

 **Argent Moon**

Sirens shrieked and echoed through empty metal corridors, accompanied by the heavy running of four super-soldiers. A Forerunner super weapon had been let loosed aboard the station, hiding until it detected Blue Team's presence, now it was tearing the space station apart. As Blue Team ran back to the reactor core, the only other place where Argent Moon could be sent into a self-destruction sequence directly. "After we make the reactor go into meltdown, how are we getting out of here?!" Fred asked as they ran.

"We'll improvise." Chief replied while holding tightly to his rifle. Coming up to one of the hangar bays, Hangar 07, Blue Team was stopped by the thunderous sound of the ventilation system above them breaking apart. CRRREAK! The metal twisted, creating a hole from which a being of pure metal and glowing orange light struck the metal floor in front of Blue Team.

Blue Team aimed their weapons at the cybernetical monstrosity. It turned facing them, " _I am the Warden Eternal, Keeper of the Domain and her secrets._ " It stated.

"A Promethean." Linda whispered, "A big one at that."

" _Do not mistake me with the digitalized organics or the automated Armigers, human._ " Its tall metallic body, towering over the SPARTANs, walked circles around them while holding to a giant hardlight sword. " _Your transgression against the Mantle and the will of the Forerunners is a violation of natural order. Not only have you used what my creators left behind in petty ways, in your petty wars, but you have also affronted the will of the last living Forerunner in the galaxy. The Didact._ "

Chief didn't retort, keeping his Assault Rifle steady on the Warden. " _Normally, this would be punished by your kind being sent back to their homeworld, stripped of all its achievements. Back to the stone age. But not now, humans. Now is a time of great peril, something your kind did not understand several millennia ago, and I doubt you would understand now._ "

"What are you talking about?" Kelly asked.

" _Finally, one speaks. I was afraid I was conversing with a pack of scared children. The Great Darkness approaches, for a long, long time, the Line Installations that once safeguarded the Maginot Sphere have served as my eyes and ears looking deep into every corner of this galaxy._ " The Warden explained, " _The ancillas there had communicated back to me, they had seen what we were afraid of, most likely. Shadows shifting among the sea of space, theorized once by the Lifeworkers, the Parasite is not dead. It had been regrouping in the far reaches of our galaxy. Gathering its forces at the rim, awaiting your civilizations' weakest moment._ "

"Chief, is he talking about the Flood?" Fred asked, the Master Chief was hesitant to ask this construct any more questions, but this was big. The last time the Flood had been seen was aboard the Mantle's Approach when the Gravemind had infiltrated it, but the vessel had been destroyed and the monster along with it.

"The Gravemind is dead, the Flood is gone." Master Chief stated, avoiding questioning.

" _Insolent mortal, do you not understand what you have been fighting? The Parasite is no mere highly infectious disease, its intelligence is beyond your comprehension. Beyond ours! As we speak losing precious time, as the aliens scurry like cockroaches seeking contact with their fleet, the Parasite is amassing biological beings to recreate a compound mind in some remote death world._ " The Warden prepared to attack, " _Something your weak, idiotic, race cannot seem to comprehend. No matter, I will accomplish what is require of my station. Awake our remaining weapons no matter the cost!"_

The artificial warrior of the Forerunners swooshed fast towards the SPARTANs, almost catching them with his hardlight sword. Blue Team dodged out of the way, they fired their guns as fast as they could at the Warden. The bullets bouncing off his heavily armored chassis, the Warden laughed at the primitive weapons attempting to pierce his shell. Again, he attacked, now at each individual Spartan.

Kelly used her speed to avoid each sword slash, her nimble movements were giving the others enough time to think of something. Linda decided to boost that time by unloading her sniper rounds on the Warden. "Fred, you see that?" Chief pointed at the Warden's back.

"I see it. Some sort of power source, it could be his weakness." Fred said, "Would our weapons work on it?"

Chief looked around, trying to find anything useful in the hanger. The Warden, while chasing Kelly, slashed a wrecked Pelican in two allowing several crates to fall off. One of them was a weapons' cache, there had to be something there. "Cover me." Chief jumped out of cover, Fred using his Battle Rifle to shoot at the Warden's weak point annoying the Keeper of the Domain and shifting his attention at him.

"Uh oh…"

Chief grabbed one of the crates and ripped it open, out of it fell an M41 SPNKR. Some rockets were close too, the SPARTAN-II loaded the rocket launcher and ran back into the fight.

One of the sword slash got lucky, caught Fred and sent him flying towards a wrecked Condor. The ship shook at the strong impact of a fully armored Spartan hitting its side, severely denting it. Fred's shields flickered trying to recharge but the Warden stood over him prepared to end his life. But Linda and Kelly fired at the Warden's back, the metallic monster snarled in anger and at the inconvenience these humans were to him. He turned around and fired a sudden orange hardlight laser at the female SPARTANs. They jumped out of the way as the laser sliced through the air and several meters until it went through the far locked door leading out of the hangar and breaking it.

Then an explosion shook the Warden, a rocket had exploded on his power source. The Warden screamed in pain, or at least the closest sensation of pain that an advanced ancilla could perceive. It turned back to Fred, now with the Master Chief standing with him holding a smoking SPNKR rocket launcher. " _WORM!_ " The Warden screamed as he again charged towards him, but the Chief fired another rocket at the Warden's face.

The explosion blinded the Warden momentarily allowing Fred and Chief to run away from the Warden's way as he crashed into the same Condor that had been dented by Fred. The ship collapsed under the Warden's weight and exploded. Chief and Fred were joined by Kelly and Linda who helped them get up after the explosion had knocked them down. "You think that did him in?" Linda asked.

"Doubt it. We're losing time here, let's make our way to the reactor core." Chief ordered, Blue Team ran towards the exit leaving the hangar and the Warden who hadn't stood back up from the explosion.

* * *

 **Zaofu**

 **Earth Empire**

 **9:25 PM**

Baatar Jr, son of Suyin and Baatar Sr, ran through the streets of the annexed city. The streets were occupied by several Earth Empire Soldiers and Heavy Mechs pulling people out of their homes, looking for Suyin and her remaining family members. Baatar Jr ran up the steps of his former home, the Governor's Palace, the bodies of Guards littered the steps and the lobby of the palace. He slowed down his pace as he got closer to his goal, the office of the governor. The office was guarded by two heavily armored soldiers, their faces covered by green visors and sporting black onyx armor, reminiscent to that of the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. They allowed him to enter.

"Empress Kuvira." He made his presence known. Kuvira was out in the terrace overlooking the city streets, with Spartan Donar sitting in the governor's desk inspecting several battle plans. Donar looked up from his strategizing to notice the scientist holding onto several blueprints and reports.

"Ah, Bataar. Do come on in." Donar said.

"Am I interrupting?" Bataar Jr asked, seeing Kuvira standing like a statue outside the office.

"Not at all, lay the papers on the desk here."

Baatar placed what he held dearly on the wooden desk over the battle plans, "We finally cracked the code. The blueprints for the final weapon are ready, the components are listed and the scientists ready."

"What is this?" Donar held onto the white papers. "Reports?"

"Indeed, sir. The cracking team was able to hijack into UNSC signals, we couldn't do so using telecommunication frequencies from the Infinity back to base, the team got crafty. They used older satellite comm towers to contact the Infinity's closed channels that they used back when they made first contact several years ago. There we introduced a self-replicating virus to fool the on-board AI into doing what it thought were daily tasks." Bataar explained, "This allowed the actual cracking team to safely enter the weapon manifest registry of the Infinity and a handful of reports from Moonbase Alpha."

"I'm surprised you were able to do that with what we had in hand." Kuvira said walking into the room, "Impressive."

"It would've been impossible without Donar and his team, their unblocked Spartan access files and codes gave us the entryway." Baatar Jr said, "And allowed us to find this."

He placed a printed photograph on the desk, "Are those what I think they are?" Donar asked in complete disbelief. Kuvira smiled.

"Begin construction of the weapon, take the roof of this city down. Tell Varrick to double time it in stabilizing the Promethean Core." Kuvira ordered.

"Yes, ma'am." Baatar left immediately. Donar still looked at the photo, his dumbfounded visage was telling.

"When you asked for more troops, I didn't think you meant this." Donar said in disbelief.

"A whole army of obedient and unwavering troops following my orders? This is a dream come true. Everything I need to make them obey me is on that ring." Kuvira pointed at the orbiting Halo. "Get your people ready, love, you have a recovery op to get done."

Outside the city, the newly reestablished Earth Army had constructed a makeshift laboratory for Varrick to use. He had been taken against his will by Kuvira and forced to build her final weapon. The weapon that she would supposedly use as a deterrent against the United Forces and the nations of the world. Hopefully against the UNSC itself.

Baatar Jr entered, surprising a tinkering Varrick and his assistant, Zhu Li. "Woah! Don't do that." Varrick covered what he was working on.

"Kuvira wants results, how's the weapon going?" He asked.

"Well the good news, you see, the core is heavily unstable. I would NOT even call this thing a core, wherever you unearthed it from it was not an ancient TV remote!" Varrick said.

"Okay then, and the bad news?"

"The bad news is that we have nothing that can suck energy from this thing. I've tried everything from superconducting cables to paper straws! This thing is giving me bad vibes, man!"

"I don't care Varrick, use whatever means necessary to get this thing to power a toaster! Build the weapon around it if necessary, I want this ready by the end of the week." Baatar ordered as he left. Varrick looked a Zhu Li who looked worried as the pulsating thump of the core echoed from its containment room.

"Sir…you didn't tell him…" Zhu Li said but was cut off by the stressed scientist and former business owner.

"I know I know…" Varrick sighed approaching his research terminal, "But what do you think would happen if I told him that this core…is actually a prison containing one big mother?"

The computer screen showed the deep live scan of the core and what resembled a humanoid shape curled like a fetus within its hardlight walls. Forerunner Sigils adorned it, symbols that had been lost to the ages. The sigil of a keeper. Varrick leaned closer, noticing something, he looked at the thing's head since one of its eyes was visible to the scanning devices. The eye opened looking directly at Varrick. "Golly!"

"Sir?"

"Yeah well…whatever happens when we get a tube strong enough to siphon power into Kuvira's weapon and it blows up on her face its not our problem." Varrick said as cold sweat ran down his face. "Back to work!"

* * *

 **Somewhere in the Earth Empire**

 **10:00 PM**

Mako walked back and forth trying to think of something, if they stayed here the more likely they were going to be found by scouting parties. "We have to get out of here." He anxiously said.

"Where do we go?" Asami asked. Mako didn't know where to go, there was no haven for them, the UNSC wouldn't risk sending an extraction dropship to get them. Thorne wondered what to do, then remembered something critical.

"Leonidas are you still there?" He asked, the small hologram of a Spartan warrior of old appeared over Korra's unmoving body.

"Spartan Thorne! Spartan Korra is in critical condition, I am unable to get her back to consciousness." The AI reported. "She is in a catatonic state."

"That sounds like Avatar funny business to me." Bolin took notice of this, "I mean, she would be fine otherwise, right?"

"I would not call a sniper wound fine." Leonidas replied, "But yes, she would be awake. And I do not know what this Avatar business means."

Asami and Mako smiled in relief, "Don't worry about it Leo, she'll be okay. We just need somewhere safe to go." Mako said.

Leonidas began to contact the satellite network, looking for a solution. "Spartan Thorne, I have updated your destination. It should appear in your HUD."

"What's over that area, Leo?" Thorne accessed his GPS locator through his VISR, the terrain was incomplete, most of the desert had been left unexplored by UNSC drones. Thorne looked for the navpoint.

"Several ruins, stone and marble. Unable to estimate date of origin, but it should be sturdy enough to serve as a viable camping site." Leonidas explained, "I suggest moving there now while the enemy is preoccupied with the night."

"Agreed." Thorne acknowledged. "Alright guys, I'm gonna be carrying Korra since I'm the only one strong enough to lift her body weight and the armor. Mako, Bolin, you two are on point. Asami, stick with me. Watch my back."

"Got it." Asami and Bolin said. Mako silently nodded in agreement.

"Sharing navpoint coordinates with Mako, let's move out." Thorne ordered.

* * *

 **Argent Moon**

Blue Team reached their objective, the reactor core. The Covenant seemed to have evacuated the area, the SPARTANs had no obstacles in reaching the core after dealing with the Warden Eternal. The reactor chamber was cool, the metal walls being covered in a thin layer of ice and icy mist crawling along the floors. The heavy clanks of MJOLNIR armor hitting metal floor echoed through the empty room, the Master Chief entered the control room and scanned the panel with his eyes. The rest of Blue Team covering his flanks as he figured the controls out.

"Setting the reactor to meltdown, Kelly do you have access to the hangar bay closest to us?" Master Chief asked.

"I have one, Hangar 243, it has a single remaining Prowler docked." Kelly answered while looking at her HUD's readings. "Distance is close, 1 kilometer from here if we hurry after setting the core into meltdown."

"Done. Let's head out of here." Chief said as he led his team towards the navpoint placed by Kelly.

The station began to shake, vents and pipes began to burst as the cooling systems were shutting off and the excess heat from the fusion reactor began to overheat. The domino effect permutated throughout the entire station, the evacuation alarm came online as the sudden wave of heat and smoke from nascent fires invaded the lower levels of the station outward. Blue Team were fast on the approach of the hangar.

At an intersection point, they could see towards outer space, the Covenant Fleet was still there waiting. Chief took a glimpse of the fleet, about 4 RCS-battlecruisers, 10 corvettes and a singular CCS-battlecruiser acting as the fleet's flagship. If they took the prowler out they would be obliterated before they could even activate the ship's cloaking function. Perhaps the station's self-destruction could give them the window they need to cloak the prowler and then make a quick jump into slipspace into a remote location and then jump towards the Infinity. The Covenant Storm fleet wouldn't dare to enter conflict with the Infinity and her escort fleet.

"How much time do we have?" Chief asked.

"About 10 minutes." Linda replied, "…from the looks of it."

They reached the hangar, the prowler was waiting for them there, Kelly ran towards the controls to begin the undocking process. "Damn, Chief, the ship is out of fuel. It's going to take some minutes to refuel it."

Fred took a glance at his motion tracker, red dots all around them. "And we got hostiles incoming, entrance!" He informed the team.

Chief looked around, there were some weapon cases around them. "Take positions, Kelly get that ship fueled and then get to cover. We're going to need to defend this spot until the prowler is ready."

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHG!" The war cry of the Elite General leading the charge of Storm Covenant forces entering the hangar alerted Blue Team. "KILL THE DEMONS! FOR 'MDAMA AND THE TRUE COVENANT!"

Blue Team fired at the incoming alien squads, this could be their final stand. The Elite General rushed through the hail of bullets, full-metal clashing against energy shielding. The Elite jumped over the cover where the Master Chief was kneeling behind. Chief rolled out of the energy sword's incoming bite, he then quickly tackled the Elite General faster than the eye could register. Even faster did he moved his hand towards his handgun, the M6C Magnum, on his right thigh and aimed it at the Elite's sword hand unleashing the barrage of heavy caliber pistol rounds into it. This forced the Elite to let go of the sword giving Chief the time he needed to take possession of the melee weapon and behead the Elite, the energy sword's plasma edge ignoring the strong energy shielding.

Grunts, Jackals, and Elite Minors fell to the tactical shooting and dodging of the SPARTANs, until the last one of them fell dead onto the hard and cold metal floor. It was quiet all the sudden, nothing but the reloading sound of smoking guns. "I'm not getting anything in my motion tracker, think that's all of them?" Linda asked.

"Stay alert, is the prowler ready?" Chief looked over to Kelly.

"It's done, we better get aboard." Kelly replied, activating the prowler's entrance ramp. But as the loud sound of the ship's extending ramp came in, two Hunters blasted through the adjacent blocked gates flanking the main entrance to the hangar.

"Hunters!" Fred yelled. "Open fire!"

But before either party could attack, the station shook again as the core was ready to blow at any second. One of the Hunters fell losing its balance, the other one worried looked over its bond brother not noticing a figure creep behind it. An orange sword sliced the Hunter in two, the Lekgolo worms falling all over the floor in a pool of steaming luminescent orange blood. The other Hunter tried to charge its cannon but was quickly dispatch off by the imposing figure, the Warden Eternal.

"That Promethean is back!" Kelly clearly surprised exclaimed.

"Everyone into the prowler now!" Chief and the others quickly ran into the prowler. Its advanced engines came to life and boosted out of the hangar's now opened exit port leaving the Warden only watching their departure.

The prowler, piloted by the Chief himself, blasted through explosions from Argent Moon, reaching minimum safe distance as the station exploded in a gigantic ball of nuclear fire that consumed several ships from the Covenant Storm's fleet which had tried to retreat but hadn't been fast enough.

As they routed a slipspace jump back to the Infinity they got a communication hail from an unknown source. Chief answered, "This is Spartan-117 from the UNSC Infinity, who is this, over?"

"Chief, this is Codename: JOVIAN from the Office of Naval Intelligence." The masked voice responded.

"ONI? They probably got the station's self-destruct signal…or us borrowing one of their prowlers." Fred stated.

"Correct, Spartan-104. Congratulations on a mission well-done, Blue Team. But we're taking over your operations from now on, Captain Lasky will be briefed on this in due time."

"What does ONI need of us?" Linda asked, her thick accent that resembled the southern American dialect sounded ticked off, not wanting to be related to the spooks again.

"Hestia system, a former Outer Colony named Meridian, we've got reports of similar activity found on Requiem and Kamchatka."

"On what scale?" Chief asked.

"Significant. Colonists have refused to work with our agents, but we are sure that the presence of a Spartan team of your stature should help them reconsider the UNSC's involvement."

The Spartans waited for the Chief to decide on what to do, "Possible enemy objective?" He asked.

"Unknown for the most part, we believe that they are trying to unearth something, similar to the energy readings located in these coordinates."

The bridge computer was then remotely controlled to show a stellar map of several UNSC charted systems. The map pointed to the 26 Draconis, Cygnus, Escala, Lambda Aurigae, and the previously reported Hestia star systems.

"Forerunner signals. If the Covenant are unearthing weapons on any of these systems, then that would spell dire consequences for us and the Sangheili's war against Mdama's forces. Mission parameters are to investigate Meridian, since it has the most significant Covenant presence, report findings back to me, and half any Covenant dig progress there. Understood?"

"Understood." Chief replied.

"Good, JOVIAN out." The communicator went silent and the map disappeared with only Meridian's coordinates left on the computer monitor.

"Chief, we better check back with the Infinity in either case. We're low in ammo and resources." Fred recommended.

"Yeah, let's get back to base."

* * *

 **UNSC Infinity**

 **Orbiting Requiem**

 **Epoloch System**

 **October 25** **th** **[Earth Calendar]**

The prowler docked in one of the numerous hangars of the UNSC Infinity, "Vessel docked and locked, welcome back Blue Team." The hangar supervisor said. As the SPARTANs walked out from the ship down the ramp, several Marines and hangar personnel applauded them back. The SPARTANs didn't view themselves as soldiers worthy of admiration or applause so they walked in silence out of the hangar.

The Master Chief made his way to the Infinity's bridge, the rest of Blue Team staying back in the armory and getting ready for ONI's mission. Entering the bridge, the Chief was met with Captain Lasky and Commander Palmer. Chief saluted, "At ease, Chief. I didn't get a report back, what's going on?" Lasky asked.

"We were able to accomplish the mission, sir." Chief informed the Captain, "Argent Moon was set on meltdown, Covenant presence there was exterminated and so was any data or weapons there."

"Huh, well…good. I'm sure that Osman is going to be happy about that." Lasky said while looking at his holotable. It was showing a holographic rendition of Requiem, with red dots pointing at a location in the Earth Kingdom. "Speaking of which, I got a message from ONI a few minutes ago. It seems that they have re-assigned your team."

"Affirmative, sir. ONI has instructed us in investigating a former Outer Colony, Meridian in the Hestia System for Covenant activity and a Forerunner signal." Chief explained. "We came back to replenish our supplies before embarking on this mission."

"Chief, I know this might sound odd, but you've been taking mission after mission ever since what happened on the Halo Ring some years ago." Lasky said, Chief's head motioned towards the orbiting Halo appearing through the window. "But have you thought of resting a couple of days before going into doing another job? Even Spartans need some rest from time to time."

Chief didn't immediately reply, he has always been the man to accomplish the mission, always on the move on what to do next, and to do what needed to be done to safeguard humanity. "Staying back does no favors to our cause, with no disrespect, sir." Chief responded after a few seconds thinking. His sincere yet troubled deep voice made Lasky remember that the Master Chief and the SPARTAN-IIs were entirely different from the SPARTAN-IVs that he had become accustomed in dealing with. They've been soldiers since they were children and knew little aside from war, Lasky was unsure if Chief had any hobbies besides tending to his weapons and armor.

"It's alright, Chief, I'm just worried that's all." Lasky said smirking, he looked at the holographic Requiem.

"Thank you, sir."

"The captain has been bothered by several people over the past few hours, from…" Palmer was trying to change the subject but realized that what she was going to inform the Chief was confidential. "Uh never mind."

"It's alright Sarah, he at least deserves to know that ONI is not only interested in the troubles of other planets." Lasky gave her the freedom to speak.

"ONI?" Chief didn't expect that ONI was involved in something else.

"Yeah. The Earth Kingdom has been conquered by its supposed liberator, her name is Kuvira. She had been amassing an army of sympathizers throughout the few past years, going from province to province convincing their governors to join her nascent empire either by peaceful coercion or force." Palmer informed the Chief, "ONI had been in contact with the local planetary nations, they want Kuvira out of the picture."

"Special operations." Chief deduced that ONI most likely sent a kill team to deal with Kuvira behind enemy lines.

"Right. But the thing is…they sent a member of Fireteam Osiris there along with her handpicked team." Palmer replied, "But two hours ago we lost contact with them, and…"

"It's Korra, Chief…she's leading Osiris, and now we have no contact with them. Just a faint signal here." Lasky pointed at the red blip on the holographic globe of Requiem. The Master Chief was confused, there was no way Korra was an ONI operative, he thought she was returned to her people safely. This wasn't right, he has seen her fight tooth and nail for her people at such young age. Flashbacks of his team, a younger Blue Team, infiltrating into the Unrelenting, a Covenant vessel attacking the Damascus Testing Facility, orbiting Chi Ceti IV…the day Samuel-034 died fighting the Covenant. It was that sense of service and sacrifice that Korra showed fighting the Ur-Didact on Halo that reminded Chief of the loss of his friend. Of the sacrifice that his Spartan-II brothers and sisters made on Reach to give humanity more time.

And now ONI had most likely indoctrinated her with their own twisted sense of duty, something that those outside of ONI's Sectors didn't particularly shared. The Chief approached the holotable, "Is this updated?" He asked.

"Its been like this for the past half hour, it updates every hour. They might be on the move right now; their AI is the one who sends the signal back to us. Its highly encrypted so it can't be hijacked." Lasky replied.

"Tell Blue Team to continue with the current mission and inform Fred that he is leading the team for it." Chief told Lasky as he turned and walked out of the bridge.

"Chief wait, where are you going?" Palmer asked.

"Righting a wrong." Chief responded in a somber tone leaving Lasky and Palmer confused. They looked at each other, believing that this hadn't sit well with the Master Chief.

"Sarah…send a hail to Lord Hood." Lasky ordered.

"On it."


End file.
